Time: The Greatest Illusion of All
by Chaos Beast-Vince
Summary: This is a story with My OC, Vince Starr, and my little sister's OC, Ivy Starr, in the world of Final Fantasy 7. Action, Adventure, yada yada yada.
1. The Beginning, Oh The Irony

**Ch.1 The Beginning, Oh The Irony.**

"_Time, tis the greatest illusion of this world, yet it is the master of us all. We all obey the orders of time, it tells us when to sleep, when to be awake, how long we have to wait to eat, and etc. We are all slaves to this unse--" _

"**VINCENT AXEL BLOOD ROSE STARR!!!**" The young man's thoughts were interrupted by the screaming of his full name by his younger sister, Iviniya, aka, Ivy. The young man, called Vincent by his sister, turned around after having his though monologue interrupted.

"What is it Ivy, I was thinking." Vincent said, his tone quite serious with a touch of annoyance. "Weeeellll, unless you want me to walk off on my own in this unknown place, you'll come with me!" She countered. Vince sighed, he couldn't leave his sister to wander off in this place, especially since they had no idea where 'this place' was.

Our young hero is Vincent Starr; Vincent had stark white hair that stopped at the back of his neck, but had a long bang in front of his right eye, which made his deep blue eyes seem even bluer and wore a plain white T-shirt hidden underneath his off-white trench coat, hidden from site on his pants was a gun holster, which held his personal Smith & Wesson .357, it was inscribed T.R.S, the initials of his and Ivy's father and it had an odd looking charm tied to the end of the handle. The pants the young man had on were simple grey jeans with some tears around his kneecaps and he work brown work boots.

The heroine of the story is Iviniya Starr; Ivy was a lot different from her older brother. She stood a bit shorter than Vincent and she had dark green hair with matching green eyes. She had her hair tucked under a boy's messenger hat; she wore a black hoodie with Japanese symbols on it. She wore a pair of blue jeans with some rips that were on the knees like Vincent's. And finally, she wore dusty working boots like Vincent's, only smaller in size. While Vincent was 17 years old and had a quite serious attitude towards things, Ivy Starr was not so serious, laughing at a lot of things and almost always having a smile on her young face. She was 4 years younger than Vincent, putting her at 13 years of age but she was a bit odd for a young teenager. She had severe mental problems that caused her to have a negative personality trigged only by extreme negative emotions, which has been dubbed Poison Ivy. While Ivy is quite gentle, although she can be quite dangerous in battle, Poison Ivy is extremely vicious.

Poison Ivy has only been seen once and it's something that neither of them can forget. Back on there home world of Earth, Ivy was only about 9 years old and she was being beat up and picked on by some bullies that lived down the street from them. After 10 minutes of being laughed at and bullied, Vincent was finally able to show up; however, he couldn't do much seeing as the boys were a lot older and stronger than the young 13 year old. Vincent was shoved down and Ivy was shocked and scared. But, then something in her brain snapped and she stood up and lunged at the boys. She was on them and beating the hell out of them and Vincent was shocked at what happened to his little sister. He got up and barely pulled her off of them, but she turned on him in her blind rage and sliced his back. The site of her brother injured like that, snapped her back into control and he was rushed off to the hospital for treatment. The young man's injury left a long scar down his back that only got longer as the boy grew taller. Ivy has always felt bad about it, but Vince always assures her that it's okay.

Annnyyywaaay, enough back story, on with the main tale. Our young heroes are in an unknown world, trying to find out where they are and why they're there. Vincent was standing on the edge of a cliff near the ocean, looking out and thinking, but he walked back towards his sister when his thoughts were disturbed.

"Alrighty VinceyVince, which direction shall we go?" Ivy said, giggling at her little pet name for her brother. Vince sighed when she called him VinceyVince, even though she knew he hated that. The young man surveyed there surroundings, they were on a relatively flat plain with only a few trees dotting the area here and there. The wind blowing a gentle breeze that blew the grass in the direction it wanted to go.

"Hmmm, how about this way?" Vince said, pointing in the direction that the wind blew. Ivy giggled slightly at his direction and said,

"Okay, but next time pick a direction that's not going in the direction of the wind. Vince smiled a bit at his younger sibling and said, "I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."

The two of them set off in the direction that Vince pointed to and after about an hour of seeing nothing, the two of them let out a sigh.

"Viiiiiiinnnnce, I'm tired of walking, carry me?" Ivy asked, using her puppy eyes to try and get her way. Vince sighed and nodded at her request, he then kneeled down onto his knees and waited for Ivy to climb onto his back. When she was on, Vince stood back up and continued his walk. After some more walking, the two of them ran into what seemed like an endless marsh. Vince sighed a little bit at the swamp-like area they had come across. He then continued on his journey, stepping through the marsh.

However, unbeknown to our heroes, something was sneaking up on them, something very large, yet quiet, was coming up on them. Finally, the large monster reared back for the kill but it wouldn't be able to, it was struck down by something unknown.

Vince turned around, startled by the loud, painful sound and noticed a large, roughly 30ft. snake had fell down and died. Vince put his young sibling down and stared, awestruck, by the gigantic monster that they dead before them.

"W-what did this, and how!?" Vincent said. Ivy looked just about as awestruck as her brother when she saw the snake, but she was more shocked at the giant snake itself then the fact it was dead. The two of them looked around to see if they could find the saviors.

Then, a young blond warrior appeared before them, which startled Vince and he quickly pulled his gun out and pointed it at the warrior; however, the warrior was very skilled and he quickly pointed his overly large sword near Vince's head, holding the blade one-handed somehow.

"Who are you!?" Vince said, his tone very demanding even though there was a very large sword near his head.

"I should be asking you the same thing, what are you doing out here in the Marsh, it's a very dangerous place for a couple of kids. The blond warrior said, never dropping his guard for even a second.

"Me and my sister are lost, we have no idea where we are or how we got here." Vince explained. The young warrior then pulled back his sword and put it back on his back. Vince was a bit skeptical about the warrior putting away his blade, but Vince was soon to follow, slowly putting his Smith &Wesson away in its holster on the left side of his pants.

"Now, like I said, who are you?" Vince asked again.

"Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine." The warrior said. Vince sighed and said,

"My name is Vince Starr and this is my sister I-" "Ivy Starr." Ivy interjected. The warrior nodded his head slightly and said,

"My name is Cloud, Cloud Strife."

Vince nearly had a stroke when he heard the name of their savior.

"Cloud Strife….THE Cloud Strife." He said. Vince couldn't believe what he was hearing, they were saved by one of his favorite characters from one of his favorite video games.

"Hey Vincey, isn't the Cloudy from Final Fantasy 7." Ivy said, pulling Vince out of his shock. "Y-yes." Was all the awestruck hero could say. "You've heard of me?" Cloud asked.

"Well YEAH!! You're the most famous video game character of all time!!" Vince just about shouted.

"A video game character?????" Cloud said, confused at the strange boy's words.

"I apologize for pulling a gun on you Cloud." Vince said, returning to his serious demeanor. Cloud nodded at the young man's apology. He turned his back towards the two and said,

"It's dangerous here you should come back to my base back in Kalm. Come on, I'll give you two a ride on Fenrir." Cloud said. Cloud then preceded to walk away from Vince and Ivy, making it obvious that they were supposed to follow him. When Cloud stopped in front of his motorcycle, Fenrir. Vince and Ivy looked at the motorcycle with amazement and awe. It was even more impressive when it was right in front of you.

Cloud then took his sword off his back and separated it in all of its pieces and put them inside Fenrir. The blond young warrior then hopped onto his bike and started it up, revving it up after it started, for no real reason, just to show off. Vince huffed a little bit and muttered,

"Show off…" Ivy then nudged him in his arm and glared at him.

"Don't be disrespectful Vince." She whispered to him. Ivy then snapped her fingers and looked at Cloud with a large smile on her face.

"Ohhh Cotton Candy, is Spook, Teddy Bear, and Ciddy Kitty, in Kalm too?" She asked with hopeful optimism in her green eyes. Cloud raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Who?" He asked. Ivy sighed and said,

"Vincent, Barret, and Cid." Ivy clarified.

"Ohhh, yeah they're there." Ivy jumped up and down and squealed in happiness. Cloud raised his eyebrows again and Vince said to him,

"Sorry, she a bit hyperactive, especially when it comes to those 3 and you too."

"Ahhhh. Okay, hop on, you too." Cloud said. The two of them nodded and, Ivy being a bit more hyper with her nod, and they hopped on. Cloud revved his bike up and drove off away from the marsh and back towards Kalm.


	2. Kalm, Unlike the Rivers of Time

**Ch. 2: Kalm, Unlike the Rivers of Time**

The trio, Ivy, Cloud, and Vince, rode down the long plains heading for the small town of Kalm. Fenrir's loud roaring made talking almost impossible without shouting at the top of your lungs. On the large motorcycle, Cloud was up front of course, Ivy was right behind him, and Vince was on the back. Vince had a hand on his gun just in case something happened, and he had his other hand around Ivy to protect her and to make sure he didn't fall off. Ivy had both of her arms wrapped around Cloud's upper torso, right below his chest, but right above his stomach.

Finally, after a couple of hours, the trio made it to Kalm safely. As they rode into town, Ivy and Vince looked at the town in awe; it looked just like Kalm from Final Fantasy 7. They saw rows of houses lined up next to each other, the large structure in the center of the small town. Townspeople were out and about, not paying the trio any mind, except a few children who waved and smiled at Cloud. After a couple of minutes riding through the town, the came upon a large building that did not look familiar to Ivy or Vince, especially not Vince since he knew just about every detail of Final Fantasy 7.

"This is the Kalm Defense Committee headquarters." Cloud said, sensing the duo's curiosity.

Cloud parked Fenrir right in front of the building and turned it off, pulling the key out of the ignition after shutting the motorcycle down. The three of them hopped off of the motorcycle, Cloud pulling his goggled above his eyes. Vince and Ivy looked up at the massive building. It looked a lot like the houses that were in Kalm, except this one was huge in size. Just then, the door to the building burst open and a large black man with a metal arm on his right arm.

"Heeeeey Spikey, what's up?" The man said, referring to Cloud.

"Who are these two kids?" He asked, looking at Vince and Ivy.

Cloud looked at the man and said to him, "Barret, This is Vincent and his sister Ivy, I found them walking through the marsh and I saved them from the Midgar Zolom."

"Vincent?" Barret said with a look of confusion on his face, thinking of the dark, brooding man inside the headquarters now. Vince saw Barret's confusion and remedied it by saying, "Just a coincidence, call me Vince."

Ivy, standing idly by, couldn't take it anymore, she squealed and jumped on Barret, hugging him tightly, not able to knock him down though.

Now Barret was really confused, a girl he didn't even know was hugging him, as if she knew him for forever. Again, Vince remedied his confusion, "She knows a lot about you and likes you a lot."

Barret was still confused, understood somewhat. Finally, Ivy released her grip on Barret, walked back over to Vince's side, a large smile still plastered onto her face. Taking a good look at the two siblings, they looked nothing alike, and seemed to act completely different, almost hard to believe they were related.

"So, where are you two from?" Barret asked the siblings.

"Earth." Vince and Ivy said in unison, simply and bluntly.

"Earth? Whadda ya mean Earth?" Barret inquired.

"I mean exactly what I said, we're from Earth. Another planet, or more specifically, to you guys, another dimension." Now Barret was extremely lost. "You guys are actually video game characters that were created in me and Ivy's world." Vince continued, Ivy nodding as he spoke.

"Shit man, this is to much, damn, just stop, ya'll mother fuckers makin' my head hurt." Barret said, not even caring to watch his language around the 13-year-old girl. Vince and Ivy didn't care about the black man's language; Ivy talked like that normally, much to her brother's dismay.

Cloud's mind was blown too but he didn't express it like Barret did. Anyway, after that, the 4 of them went inside the headquarters, seeing the entire group inside the building: Yuffie was sitting on the couch laying on her back, sleeping, Nanaki was curled up asleep in front of the couch Yuffie laid on, with Cait Sith laying on his head, Tifa was in the kitchen, Vincent was sitting in a chair, lost in thought like usual, and Cid was in the far end of the room, messing with something on a large supercomputer. Barret was the last one to walk into the headquarters, slamming the door shut, causing everyone to look at them, Yuffie, however, remained asleep somehow. Vincent just turned his head slightly to look at the group. Cid had to turn around completely to look what slammed the door, his cigarette almost burned out. Nanaki just looked up slightly, Cait Sith still on his head. Tifa came out of the kitchen and saw the group and Cloud, happy to see him home.

Cid was the first one to say something, "Barret, what the fuck was the god damn point of slamming the god damn door!?" His tone very angry, like usual. And, again like usual, he swore up a storm, He ignored the two unknown people that were in the headquarters.

Cloud stepped to the side and walked towards Tifa and the others. "These two are Vince and Ivy." Cloud explained, Cid not really even caring though, he just turned back to the computer. Ivy saw Vincent and Cid and nearly squealed her head off. She jumped at Vincent to hug him. Vincent tried to push Ivy away but to no avail.

Vince sighed slightly, walking over to Vincent and Ivy. "I apologize for my sister, she's a bit eccentric."

Vincent nodded slightly, finally able to free himself from the girl's hug. "You are Vince?" He asked. Vince answered with a slight nod.

Vincent noticed the slight bulge resembling a gun holster on Vince's waist. "You too are a gunslinger?" He asked. Just as Vince was about to nod yes, Ivy interjected,

"Uh-huh, Vince wanted to be just like you Spook, so he learned how to use a gun."

"It's just like she says, you're my idol in marksmanship." Vince said. He pulled his gun out of the holster and held it out to Vincent. Vincent looked at the gun; it looked like a quite powerful gun to the man. He also noticed the charm on the end of it, it looked like his.

"You have the same charm as me." He said.

"Yes, our father gave this to me a long time ago, along with the gun." Vince said.

Ivy had left Vince's side and gone over to Cid but instead of hugging him, she leaned down next to his face and said, "Watcha doin?"

"Trying to figure out what's wrong with this fucking computer." Cid said.

"Here, let me try." Ivy said, and before Cid could even protest, Ivy had started messing with things and pushing buttons. When she was done, whatever Cid was mad at was fixed and he was stunned.

"What the….How the hell did a little girl figure out this mother fucking computer so god damn easily??" He asked.

"It's simple Ciddy Kitty; I've spent years by computers so I know just about everything about them." Ivy said with a smile on her face.

Back over with Vince, he was talking to the party about his and Ivy's world and how he knew so much about them. Like Barret, their minds were all blown, cept Yuffie's, SOMEHOW, she was still sleeping.

Vince saw this and asked with a hint of concern is his voice, "Umm, is she okay??"

Tifa chuckled a little bit at the young man's question and answered, "Yeah, she just sleeps a lot and she's a very deep sleeper. Watch this," Tifa then walked over to Yuffie and then said, "Yuffie, if you don't get up right now, I'm going to throw your materia in the garbage!!"

And with that, Yuffie's eyes shot open and she sprung up. She then shouted in a whiny voice, "Noooooo, not my materia!! Don't touch it!!"

She then noticed Vince and, over by Cid, Ivy and she asked, "Who are they??"

Tifa groaned a little bit and said, "If you weren't so lazy and slept all the time, you'd know. This is Vince and that's his sister Ivy."

"Ahhh, got any materia?" She asked, jabbing at Vince in her usual fashion.

"No." Was Vince's response.

"Gah, you're boring." Yuffie said, "Just like Vincent."

Just then, a large explosion was heard outside of the building. It was so loud and powerful that is shoot the building, the group had to grab onto something otherwise they'd fall over.

"What the fuck was that!?" Barret said.

After that, you could hear screams of terror and pain coming from the people of Kalm. The party quickly grabbed their weapons and proceeded to head outside.

Cloud looked at Vince before heading outside and asked him, "Can you fight?

Vince grabbed his gun and answered, "I'm no Vincent but I can fight pretty damn well."

"Good, come with us. We could use the extra help." Cloud said.

Vince nodded but before leaving, he looked at Ivy and said, "Ivy stay here, it's too dangerous for you to be out there fighting."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwww whhhhhhhy?" Was Ivy's whined response.

"Because I said so and you have no weaponry to fight with." Vince answered.

"Fiiiiiinnnnnne." She said with a huff. She crossed her arms angrily and looked away from Vince.

And with that, Vince left the building along side Cloud, ready to face whatever dangers had attacked Kalm.


	3. Disturbance to the Kalm

**Ch. 3 Disturbance to the Kalm**

The group of warriors left the Kalm Defense Committee building, ready to face whatever horror was attacking the peaceful town of Kalm. When they got out there, they were shocked at the sheer amount of monsters that had invaded the small town. Ancient Dragons swarmed the sky, diving down at the innocent people, Bandersnatches ran through the streets pouncing on people tearing them limb from limb, Bombs floated throughout the area lighting homes on fire, and several Grand Horns were seen pummeling down building and attacking innocent people.

It was mass chaos in the small town, people were running through the town screaming, trying to get away from the dangerous beasts that had attacked their town. The warriors had to make up a plan and quick if they wanted to succeed in getting the monsters out of town.

Cloud looked at the group consisting of Vincent, Vince, Barret, Yuffie, Tifa, Nanaki, Cait Sith (who had gotten his stuffed moogle before leaving), and Cid.

"Everyone, we have to divide into teams to take these monsters down. Vincent, take Vince and Barret and take care of the aerial monsters, Nanaki, you take Cait Sith and Yuffie with you, stop the Bandersnatches on the ground. And finally, Tifa and Cid, you're with me, we'll take care of the Grand Horns." Cloud said, quickly and tactfully.

The warriors nodded and got into their respective groups, each group splitting up to a different part of the town. Vince took one last look at the Defense headquarters and nodded to himself.

"I'll be back Ivy." He said to himself before rushing off with Vincent and Barret.

Nanaki's group was taking care of the ground problem quite easily. Cait Sith's moogle smashing the Bandersnatches into the ground. Nanaki clawing them to shreds and Yuffie using her shurikan to kill several at once.

Cloud's group could easily handle the Grand Horns. Tifa using her suburb martial arts skills, Cid's lance, and Cloud's sword, they took down the Grand Horns quite easily, when they were done they met up with Nanki's group, who had just finished when the arrived. The six of them began to scout the town for any remaining threats while trying to put out the fires that were started by the bombs.

Vincent, Vince, and Barret were having a slightly harder time due to the agility of the aerial monsters. The bombs were taken care of no problem because they were a lot slower then the Ancient Dragons. Barret fired his machine gun into the sky at his targets; however, the dragons dodged the bullets easily. Vince used his Smith & Wesson .357 and Vincent used his rifle, the Death Penalty, to try and take down the elusive dragons. Vincent was able to take down a few of them, but Vince, was barely able to take down one of them. They were ridiculously fast. Vince was getting extremely aggravated at the situation. Barret was too and he was cussing up a storm at each round of machine gun ammo that missed.

Finally, after too long of trying to take down the Ancient Dragons, they were able to take them all down. The bullet filled bodies lie dead in the streets of Kalm. Vince, Vincent, and Barret were heading to find the others to see how they were fairing. Vincent was in front, Barret behind him, and Vince in the back of the group.

As they were walking, something was stalking the group, something large, yet somehow quiet. The monster's breathing was hushed so it could stalk it pray. Finally, the large purple monster saw it's chance to strike and it raised itself on his hind legs and went to swing it large paw at Vince. However, before the beast could make contact with it's pray, it was struck down, a very loud blood-curdling roar emitting from its dying mouth. It fell to the ground with a large thud. The three men had turned around to see what the loud roar had came from. Barret and Vince were shocked, a look of pure shock and awe on their faces. Vince; however, also had a look of horror on his face when he noticed that the monster had almost killed him, if it weren't for the fact that it had been struck down first.

But by who?? Who had killed the beast. He looked for a large sword or a spear, he saw none so that ruled out Cloud and Cid. Vince looked for a loud and obnoxious teenager, again, he saw none, so that ruled out Yuffie. Vince looked and looked, but saw no one around that could be responsible. He had looked at Vincent and Barret but they denied having anything to do with the Behemoth's death. Finally, the sound of a bladed object being removed from flesh. He looked towards the monster and saw something climb on top of the its head. When he saw the figure stab a dual-sided weapon, the handle being in the middle, he wondered who that could be, he recognized the weapon but not the person since the sun was in his eyes.

Vince walked closer to the dead monster to see who his savior was. When he saw who was holding the hilt of the double bladed weapon, his jaw dropped. Words could not express how shocked the young man was at what he saw. Standing on top of the beast, was Ivy Starr, looking down at the three men and smiling.

"Hiya." She said, her face beaming with a wide smile.

"How the- The hell-" Vince started sentences but couldn't finish them. Finally, the logic center in his brain basically imploded and now he couldn't say proper words at all.

"Glsyhar hahfkaskjdf!!!!!!" He somewhat shouted, causing Ivy to giggle.

All Barret could say to the site was, "!!!!!!!!!"

And Vincent just looked on with an impressed look on his always somber face.

Ivy then jumped down the beast, carving her blade into it so she didn't have to jump straight down, landing in front of Vince. She swung the blade downwards, causing all the blood that was coated onto the blades to fly off, onto the ground. Finally, Vince's speaking was repaired and he said,

"IVINIYA CAPTHIVIN STARR!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING OUT HERE!!!! I TOLD YOU TO STAY IN THE BASE!"

"Yeah, but you tell me a lot of things, doesn't mean I do them." She said with a laugh. "And besides that, where's the 'thank you' for saving your damn life." She snapped back at him.

Vince simply rubbed his temples, muttering Oi Vei, over and over, knowing that his younger sibling was right. Vince let out a sigh of defeat and he put his arm around his sister.

"Okay, let's go meet up with the others. Also, where'd you get that blade????" Vincent said.

"Don't ask questions." Ivy simply said, causing Barret and Vince to laugh. Vincent just smirked a little bit.

The four of them then headed towards the other parts of town, trying to find their comrades.


	4. An Old Nemesis Has Returned

**Ch. 4: An Old Nemesis Has Returned**

When the exhausted warriors made their way back to the base, Yuffie, Vince, and Ivy sat down on the couch, groaning in exhaustion. Red XIII laid in front of the couch and went to sleep. Everyone else; however, gathered into the kitchen to discuss the monster attack. Not to seem as lazy as he really was being, Vince listened very closely to the conversation going on in the kitchen.

"So, what's the status of the civilians in today's attack?" Cloud asked.

"Minimal amount of casualties, if we hadn't responded, the whole town would've been decimated." Cid responded, somehow _not_ using a curse word in a sentence.

"The casualties are a shame, but we did save the town. I've noticed the monsters are getting more and more daring, I wonder if my hunch was correct." Cloud said.

"You mean about S-" Barret was about to say, when suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Tifa went and answered the door, allowing the man to come inside, everyone had looked at the man, except for Yuffie. The man walked with a very quick stride, a look of extreme terror on his young face and said to Cloud,

"Mr. Strife, it is as you feared, Shinra is trying to regain it's power by force. Rufus has somehow gained control of the monsters and it sending them on rampages.

"I knew it, I should never have let Rufus get away that day….." Cloud said, remembering his battle with Rufus on top of the Shinra building.

"Don't feel bad Spikey, you couldn't have known he would run away like a coward." Barret said.

Vince and Ivy both got off the couch, the man from earlier having left once his news was delivered. They walked into the kitchen area, standing in front of Cloud.

"So, Shinra is trying to regain its old power is it?" Vince and Ivy said.

"Yes, that is what it seems like." Cloud responded, placing his hands on his temples and rubbing them, hating that he was correct.

"Bah, you have nothing to worry about, whether they use an army of monsters or not, we can beat them. You've beaten them before, but now you've got even more help." Vince said, completely sure of his and Ivy's abilities.

Cloud looked down slightly at Vince, his mako infused eyes glowing a bright greenish tint. The blond haired warrior smiled a bit, happy to hear Vince's words.

"You're right. We should track Rufus down and end this fight before he can regain any power.

"There's just one problem with that plan." Tifa interjected. "We don't know where Rufus is."

"True, but we'll just have to scout around, listen to rumors and find that motherfucker." Cid said, having been quiet the whole time.

"Okay, Kalm Defense Committee, come here, we're having a meeting now!" Cloud called to everyone in the base, including Yuffie.

"Does that include us?" Vince asked.

"Of course, you two are honorary members now." Tifa and Cloud said, a smile on their faces.

Ivy squealed and jumped up and down and Vince just smiled slightly. Once everyone was gathered at the meeting table, Cloud began the meeting, looking over to everyone, a very serious demeanor having donned on his face.

"Okay, so we all now that Shinra is back and trying to regain it's old power. Rufus has probably gotten the Turks backing him up along with the monsters under his control. We need to find him and stop him. So, does anyone have any ideas of where we should look for Rufus?" Cloud said, his voice having a commanding tone to it.

Silence….

Cloud let out an exasperated sigh.

"No one has any ideas?" He asked, determined for someone to have an idea.

Finally, Ivy looked towards Cloud, a bright smile on her young face.

"I have an idea, why don't we go to the Healing Lodge where you and him had that meeting in Advent Children?"

"Advent what?" Cloud asked, his face that of pure confusion.

"Don't ask, movie." Vince said, trying to clear the confusion his sister caused.

Cloud rubbed his temples again, the others just looked on, not even wanting to understand anymore, it would just make their heads hurt.

"But yes, that is a good idea, that would be the place to start our search." Cloud said when he stopped massaging his temples.

Suddenly, Ivy started jumping up and down, going 'ooo ooo oooo!', her hand pointed straight up in the air.

Everyone, including Vince, looked at Ivy like she was crazy (although that being an understatement)

"Uhhhh, yes Ivy?" Cloud said, unable to hold the extremely confused look on his face.

When she stopped giggling like a loony and stopped her bouncing. She smiled brightly and looked to Cloud asking,

"Cloudy, do you still have the car from when you and the other's escaped the Shinra building?"

Facepalm. Everyone.

With a sigh, Cloud responded,

"Yes we still have that old thing, it's in the garage, but it's broken though."

Her face became that of intense seriousness, like she was mad or something.

"I can fix it, if you want." She said

"No, that's okay Ivy, we don't re-" Cloud never got to finish that sentence, Ivy had already run off towards the garage, determined to fix that car. Cloud looked towards the girl's brother and asked,

"Is she always that hard-headed and determined?"

"Oh trust me buddy, you don't know the half of it." Vince said.

Barret looked towards Vince and said,

"Ya know, she reminds me a little bit of Yuffie, just without the missing materia." To which Yuffie ran in the room, a scowl on her face.

"You're mean, I steal materia from you guys one time and-

"245 times and counting." Everyone except Vince and Vincent said at the exact same time.

Yuffie huffed and walked out, muttering something about being a ninja, not a thief.

A scream. Not a scream like there's a roach nearby or something, no, a blood curdling scream of pure terror. It came from the garage and it rang in everyone's ears, especially Vince's. In an unreal display of speed, Vince bolted to the garage, everyone else behind him.

When they reached the garage, the light blue car that Ivy wanted to work on, had blood splattered on the driver's side. When Vince looked to his left, his face drained of ALL of it's color. Against the wall, blood everywhere, his sister had been shot. Multiple holes riddling her young body, on her torso. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The other warriors looked in frozen awe at the sight of the girl, unable to move due to sheer fright.

Then, a single chuckle was heard from the opposite direction.

Vince turned his head to face the noise when he saw the man responsible for the dark act in front of them. Holding a smoking shotgun, cape slightly flowing in the wind, stood Rufus Shinra, the man whom they wanted to track down.

The mission to end Shinra's plans just became personal.

Tears flowed out of Vince's eyes, soaking his cheeks. He quickly pulled his Smith & Wesson from his holster, the first one of the group to be able to make a move. However, the man was far quicker then the young gunslinger and quickly raised the shotgun, pulling the trigger and shooting the gun from Vince's hands with near perfect accuracy. One stray bullet shot straight into Vince's hand, making the man kneel down and let out a scream of agonizing pain.

Rufus just chuckled again at the scene that stood before him.

Finally, the others had absorbed everything around them and went to attack there enemy. However, the man was too fast, almost having a god-like speed. He ran off, the others chasing him, all except Tifa who knelt beside the brother, still griping his wounded hand.

Blood now flowed from the corners of his mouth, he had clenched down on his lips so hard he broke the skin. He shrugged off Tifa's help, ignoring his hand now, standing and walking towards his sister, his gun laying in a broken pile near her.

Tears flowed down the young mans eyes as he picked up his barely breathing sister bridal style. Tears dripped down and mixed with his sister's blood, his clothes becoming covered and stained in it.

"Tifa, where's the nearest hospital. I need to help her, I can't lose her." He said, his voice almost completely broken.

"The nearest hospital is in Edge, we need to get Cid back here, he can pilot the Shera and get her there." Tifa responded, feelings of guilt and pain coursed through her mind, sympathizing for the young man.

Vince quickly turned and faced Tifa, Ivy's near lifeless body hanging almost limp in his arms. His face twisted into a darkened scowl, filled with rage. He looked her square in the eyes, his dark blue eyes seeming to have taken on a more blood red hue, and he said,

"There's no time to wait for Cid! She'll die before he gets back! Get me the key's to the Fenrir, I'm taking her to Edge myself."

Tifa had mixed feelings within her mind about letting the Vince take the Fenrir all the way to Edge by himself. But, she put these feelings aside and walked back inside, quickly returned, a pair of keys in her fist-covered hands. She put the key's in her pocket and walked to Vince, reaching her arms out to hold Ivy.

Vince nodded, handing the bleeding girl to her. Tifa then gave him the keys to Cloud's personal motorcycle. Walking over to the large bike, Vince hopped on, quickly starting the bike. Tifa then came and carefully placed Ivy right behind Vince, carefully making sure that she would not fall off, no matter what.

With a nod, Vince backed the bike out of the garage and sped off towards Edge as fast as he could, leaving Tifa behind the garage of the defense committee alone..


	5. The Race is On!

The Race is On!

**The roar of the engine, that's the only thing that the young man could hear. Every other possible sound was drowned out by the man's thoughts mixed with the roar of Fenrir. **

"_**Why her! Dammit!" **_**Vince repeated in his mind repeatedly, **_**"If something happens to her, I…. no! I can't think that way, I'll make it, I have to." **_

**And with that thought, Vince gunned the motorcycle, making sure Ivy's body was firmly secured. The plains rolled by quickly, the grass forced to bow to the tracks of the motorcycle, as Vince drove as fast as the motorcycle could possibly go. Blood soaked through the back of Vince's shirt, staining his own back. His hand was still bleeding too, but he didn't care about that, all he cared for was the safety of his only family. Blood ran down the palm of his hand, quickly flying off behind him. Vince ignored every sting he felt in that hand, every bit of pain it caused him didn't matter at all.**

**As the two rode along, the environment quickly changed from a plain like setting, to a dry, rocky setting, large cliffs and plateaus everywhere. Vince easily ducked and dodged every cliff and rock he saw. **

"_**It's too quiet around here, usually a pack of Blood Tastes or Guard Dogs lives around these parts… Something's not right." **_**He thought.**

**Vince should not have thought that, fate tends to kick people in the ass like that. Not a minute later, him and Ivy were jumped by a pack of Guard Dogs, led by a single Blood Taste. 4 of the vicious blue hued dogs jumped towards the young man, smelling the blood all over him and his sister, their claws poised and ready to rip and tear the two limb from limb. Vince; however, quickly swerved the bike to the side, ducking out of their way, speeding on ahead, however, now the entire pack began to give chase, quickly catching up to the speeding bike. Vince's heart raced the entire time, he didn't have the time nor the means in which to deal with the monsters. His gun was destroyed and their was no one around to save him. **

**Several of the blue dogs caught the bike and blew out the front tire, sending the bike careening off into a nearby plateau. Fenrir was reduced to a burning pile of scrap metal, Vince having survived by grabbing Ivy and quickly jumping off, however, he injured his leg greatly.**

**Vince held Ivy onto his back and slowly crawled towards the wall, leaning against it, his sister propped up next to him.**

"**Hehe, this might be it Ivy…. I'm sorry for everything." Vince said, his voice raspy, even though he knew Ivy couldn't hear him.**

**Slowly putting his arm of her shoulder, hugging her close, Vince ignoring the pain that simple act had caused him. He hugged her close to him, if they were going to die, Vince at least wanted to be by her side.**

**Pain coursed through every inch of his body, blood dripping down his face, dripping onto the front of his already stained shirt. Although they couldn't be seen, for the most part anyway, a large amount of cuts adorned his torso. His clothes were tattered and torn, large rips throughout his shirt and pant legs. His body was covered in scratches and dirt. One of the young man's eyes was forced shut because blood kept dripping onto it. The swarm of monsters surrounded the two siblings, the sound of the growling and snarls nearly deafened by the burning wreck next to them. The single Blood Taste stood in the middle of the semi-circle of Guard Dogs, roaring and cracking the whip like appendage on the back of its head.**

**Vince was quickly losing consciousness, his hearing dulled quickly the burning sound of the Fenrir just a dull hum now, his sight blurred next, followed by his sense of touch, no longer able to feel his sister close to him. The last thing he remembered seeing before he was out was a red fluttering blur standing in front of him, then darkness.**

**Vince's eyes opened; however, only darkness surrounded him, nothing else for miles in every direction. He quickly noticed that all his wounds were gone and his clothes were normal again, but he didn't question it, nor did he care. He franticly looked around for something, anything at all. He spotted a figure in the distance, he couldn't tell who it was, but it was his only hope of trying to figure out where he was. He started to make his way towards the figure, not knowing whether he was walking or floating. **

**As he neared the figure, he froze, color draining from his face, it was Ivy. She was unconscious; however, her wounds seemed to be gone. She seemed to be suspended into the air, then again, with everything shrouded by darkness, he couldn't tell. He started running as fast as he could so he could get to her. Just the opposite happened though, she seemed to be getting farther, no matter how fast he ran. **

**Suddenly, she was gone…**

**Just vanished into the nothingness…**

"**No…. No! Fuck!" Vince screamed.**

**That was it, he didn't think he could go on anymore. Vince just broke down and started to cry. Loud sobs were the only thing to be heard for what seemed to be miles. Vince looked up for a second, tears staining his face, his eyes bloodshot red yet seemed to be dull, their natural deep blue color looking what appeared to be a dingy bluish-grey, and he noticed a light off in the distance. Something was compelling him to head towards it, telling him that everything was going to be ok if he headed for it. He started walking, the light coming closer and closer. As he began to near the light, suddenly a loud voice boomed and echoed all around him, forcing Vince to cover his ears.**

"**Vince! Wake up, wake up Vince please!" The voice kept repeating.**

**Awake? The young man thought he was awake. Suddenly, a second light appeared in the opposite direction of the first one. The echoed voice suddenly seemed to only be coming from the direction of the new light. After a minute of the voice speaking, Vince suddenly recognized the voice.**

"**T-Tifa?" He said, his eyes slowly returning to their natural color. **

**He started to walk towards the second light. Soon, his walking turned to full blown running, the first light slowly fading away. When he reached the second light, suddenly, his eyes burst open. Not knowing where the hell he was, Vince scanned his eyes everywhere. His vision cleared up quickly and he noticed he was in a hospital bed, a breathing mask attached to his face. He noticed his chest was exposed and he had wires and all sorts of bandages on his chest. **

**Vince weakly turned his head to the left, noticing a sleeping Tifa slowly awakening. When she awoke and noticed the young man was awake, she started to cry. **

"**You're awake! Oh my god, I'm so glad you're awake." She said, tears rolling down her face.**

**Vince tried to sit up, but he groaned from underneath the mask, pain shooting up his torso. **

"**Vince! No, you need to rest, you were badly hurt when we found you and Ivy." Tifa scolded.**

**However, the young man didn't listen and proceeded to rip the mask off of him and tore the wires off his chest as he continued to sit up, causing the heart rate monitor to flat line. Within seconds, a doctor and a couple of nurses appeared in the room. The doctor quickly tried pushing him back down, but Vince shrugged it off and got up, his legs dangling off the edge of his hospital bed.**

"**Where am I?" Was the first thing he said, looking directly at the doctor.**

"**You're in Edge, this young woman and an associate of hers brought you and a young girl here." The doctor said, very annoyed at his patients actions.**

"**Young girl…" Vince said. Suddenly, the doctor's words dawned on his and his eyes widened and he nearly shot out of his bed. "Ivy! Where is she? Is she ok!" He asked.**

"**Yes Vince, she's just fine, she asleep in another room." Tifa said, putting his hands on Vince's chest, forcing him to lay back down. "You need to get some more rest and heal up."**

"**You're right….. Fine." Vince said. He relaxed his back and shut his eyes, drifting off to a more peaceful sleep. **

**The doctors then re-applied all the medical equipment that Vince tore off of him, the heart monitor returning to its normal beeping, leaving the room. Both of the teenagers were alive, Tifa was glad for that. She looked to the sleeping teenager and said that she'd return tomorrow. And with that, she left the room, walking into Ivy's room to check on her. She ended up staying there for a little while.**

**The younger sibling was in far worse shape then her older brother, but she would survive. She had large bandages wrapped around a majority of her torso. The doctors had cleaned up the blood that had once adorned her younger face. After making sure that both the siblings were breathing, Tifa exited the hospital, a smile on her face.**


	6. R&R, Yeah, Like That's Gonna Happen

**R&R, Yeah, Like That's Gonna Happen**

It had been 3 days since Vince and Ivy were brought the hospital located in Edge, and not a single day went by where Vince wasn't scolded by the doctors. Several times, they've had to use force to get him to finally relax, employing mild sedatives to him. Ivy; however, still had not awoken, which bothered Vince greatly. However, he would wait till she did awake.

"99.…..100" Were the number that came from a certain impatient patient in the small hospital in the semi-large town of Edge.

"101.…..102.…..103" Vincent counted on, the young man out of his hospital bed, the covers tossed aside and the pillow out of place. His voice sounding exhausted and rasp. In between numbers, grunts of pain could be heard from him, but he continued on stubbornly.

Vincent continued to do his one-armed push-ups, periodically and methodically switching which arm did the exercise, sweat beads dripping down his scarred, shirtless body and onto the clean linoleum floor. The muscles in his arms constantly constricting and working themselves long past the point of exhaustion. He knew he'd get in trouble with the doctor again, but the man was stubborn, he didn't care if he was scolded for his 'rash' behavior as they called it; however, he refused to lay in bed and let his muscles deteriorate, he would never again be to weak to defend the ones he cared for. His resolve long since having taken over for the strength of his arms.

When the man was reaching close to 150, a young looking nurse walked in. She adorned a traditional white nurse's outfit and had long jet-black haired tied in small bun. She carried a large plastic blue tray loaded with hospital food, a smile on her face. However, a soon as noticed Vince out of bed, working out, she almost dropped the tray, her smile fading into a panic. She quickly set the tray down and quickly walked to the young man's side, trying to stop him.

"Sir, y-you shouldn't be u-up and about like this, you still haven't fully healed up yet." The nurse said, her voice shaky and nervous, knowing that if he didn't stop, she might get in trouble.

Vincent just completely ignored the nurse, continuing to count, reaching 160, sweat practically pouring down his face and chest, his white hair glistening with the sweat that drenched him.

"S-sir, you really nee-" The nurse started to say, but was cut off.

"164.…165." Vince said louder, trying to drown the nurse out.

"SIR, STOP THAT NOW!" The nurse shrieked, finally having lost her temper, her face turning a beet red from shouting.

When the nurse shouted at Vince, he lost his concentration, causing his arm to lock up, his fell down onto the floor, slightly started by the nurse yelling at him, but not really surprised, he did ignore her every effort to do her job. His chest heaved up and down, his breathing extremely heavy from his excoriating workout. His chest glistened in the light from his sweat, his stomach heaved up and down, quickly at first, but as laid there, his breathing relaxed.

After realizing what she did, the young nurse quickly, raised her hands over her mouth, a look of pure shock and panic in her chocolate brown eyes.. Several other nurses and some patients peeked their heads in to see what the commotion was about. Seeing that it wasn't really serious, the on lookers left, continuing with whatever they were doing. Vince slowly turned his head and looked into the nurse's eyes, a slow laugh escaping his lips in between breaths.

"You….shouldn't….shout, it….is…a…hospital after…all." Vince said, laughing in between breaths, further embarrassing the nurse.

"Plus…..you….might wake….Ivy." He added, his laughing having stopped. A dark scowl on his face, although he wasn't directing any malice towards the nurse, just himself.

Vince slowly started to push himself up from the linoleum floor, slowly rising to his feet. It took a couple of minutes, and some help from the nurse. When the young man was finally on his feet again, he dismissed the nurse, assuring her that he didn't need her help and that he'd get back in bed, although it was all a lie. He slowly made his way to the bathroom in his hospital room, using the wall to support himself. His breathing was still heavy, not as heavy though. When inside the small bathroom, he reached for a towel to clean the sweat off his body. He ran the towel through his hair and over his face and chest. When he was done, the towel was almost completely soaked.

"_I really overdid it didn't I."_ He thought, _"I can barely walk… haha, oh well."_

He threw the towel aside, not caring where it landed. Vince left the small bathroom, continuing to support himself on the wall. Pain coursed through his whole body, but he couldn't care less. He walked out of his room, seeing his chance when he noticed that all the nurses weren't paying any attention to him. He slowly and carefully, made his way into Ivy's room, stumbling towards her bed. When he reached her bed, he nearly collapsed onto his knees at her bedside, placing his hand gently on her forehead, smiling softly.

"Please wake up soon Ivy." He said, bowing his head slightly, tears beginning to rim the side's of his eyes, but refusing to fall.

"She'll wake up eventually." A doctor said, walking in after hearing the young man.

The doctor was a bit annoyed at the stubbornness of the young man, but he couldn't really blame him, his love for his sister was strong, amazingly strong. The doctor walked over to Vince and gently placed his right hand onto his left shoulder, looking at a clipboard in his left hand, reading medical information about the young girl in his head. Vince didn't even look up or acknowledge the doctor, his just kept his head bowed, thinking.

"It's a miracle she even survived for so long, it's a miracle you both did. But now that she's here, she'll be okay, she just needs a lot of rest at this point." The doctor told Vince.

Vince let out a sigh, he was glad that she would, he just wanted it to be now, but he knew that she still needed to recover from everything. Standing up, finally looking the doctor in the face, he nodded slightly, ready to go back into his room.

"Good, now go get some rest, from what I heard, you need it too, you really need to stop over doing it." The doctor said, scolding the young man.

A smile formed on Vince's face, which soon turned to slight laughter. He gripped the doctor's hand, gently pulling it off his shoulder. He turned to leave the room, but just before he reached the exit, the doctor spoke to him again.

"It's not funny, you really need to stop exerting yourself so much, you're bound to tear your body apart like that." He said.

"Eh, never stopped me before doc. Besides, anything to protect her." Vince said, his voice changing from sarcastic to dead serious in an instant.

"You can't protect anyone if you destroy your body, now can you?" Was the doctor's rebuttal.

Vince just simply laughed, not even bothering to answer the doctor. And with that, Vince left the room, slowly walking back to his own, ignoring every nurse that offered to help him, simply telling them to fuck off, that he didn't need any help. When he reached his room, he made his way to his bed, nearly stumbling to the ground. He carefully hoisted himself onto his bed, laying down, but not sleeping. Despite his exhaustion, he did not feel sleepy. His eyes scanned the whole room continuously, bored out of his mind, but he could not sleep.

_Skip about 2 and ½ hours…_

3 people walked into the hospital, heading towards the top floor. They were Tifa, Cloud, and Vincent. Despite having visited the hospital everyday for the past three days, Vincent and Cloud still received odd looks from the nurses, Vincent for his strange attire, Cloud for the fact that he carried an enormous sword on his back, but they nonchalantly ignored them. When they reached the top floor of the hospital, the trio went inside Vincent's room, finding the young man laying in bed, shirtless and awake.

"Ah, you're awake, how're you feeling Vince?" Tifa asked, a smile adorning her almost radiant face.

"Eh, I'm okay I guess, just really bored." Vince said, chuckling lightly.

The young man sat up in bed, swinging his feet over the side of his bed, but not leaving it. He gripped the plastics bars that were attached to the frame of his hospital bed, the veins in his arms bulging out slightly.

"Good, glad to see you're recovering nicely." Cloud said, reaching his arm out for Vince.

Vince laughed a little bit, reaching his arm out and locking wrists with the man, nodding gently, returning his hand to the bar. However, Vince's smile faded, turning serious in a heartbeat.

"Any news on Rufus?" He asked, looking Vincent in the eyes, knowing that he had been out scouting.

Vincent simply shook his head. "No, no sign of him yet." He said.

Vince let out a deep sigh, his head dropping, his gaze redirected to the floor, his deep blue eyes not even really looking at the floor so much as staring off into space, thinking deeply. Why was tracking this man almost impossible?

A small frown on her face, Tifa decided to break the moodiness by piping up, a smile breaking out on her face.

"Vince, the three of us got you something, I think you might like it." She said, his light brown eyes almost sparkling with joy.

"I hope so, it was really expensive." Cloud said, laughing before receiving a quick jab to his ribs by Tifa.

Vince's head perked up, looking directly at Tifa, wondering what he was getting.

"Okay Vince, close your eyes, and don't peek." Tifa instructed, smiling brighter.

Vince nodded before shutting his eyes, contemplating what he was getting. Vincent then produced a large black leather case from his cape, despite not having _anywhere_ to put it, two simple clasps that kept it locked. A small leather grip on the upper half of the middle of the case, showing that it could be touted around without raising suspicion of its contents. Tifa then tapped Vince's shoulder, telling him to open his eyes. He did so, and upon seeing the case, looked at quizzically, asking what was in it.

"Open it silly, it would ruin the surprise if I told you what was inside of it." Tifa said, cheerily.

Vince nodded, laughing slightly, happily taking the case from Vincent, setting it on his lap, undoing the clasps. When he opened the case in front of him, a smile spread across the entirety of the young man's face, his dark blue eyes almost looking like they shined. Inside the case inside black foam was a large pistol, a Colt M1911a1 .45 caliber with 5 fully large clips underneath the gun, capable of holding 9 bullets in them. And next to the clips were 3 boxes full of ammo, each box containing 100 bullets. And finally, above where the gun had rested, was a black leather shoulder hostler, matching the set perfectly. It was a very sleek looking charcoal black pistol, with a 6" barrel on it, a small iron site on the top of the gun near the back and on the slide was a small gold plating with an inscription that read: _Never Fear the Reaper._

Vince scanned the gun over several times, aiming with it, a smile on his face the whole time. With his inspection of the complete, he grabbed one of the clips and stuck it inside the gun, pulling back the slide, now having chambered a bullet. He grabbed the gun holster and placed the pistol inside of the hostler, having turned the safety on of course. After all, he's not stupid.

"I take it you like it." Cloud simply said, smiling.

"Like it! Hahahahahahaha! That doesn't cover 1/100000000th of how I feel right now. I love it, thank you all sooooooooo much!" Vince said.

"We're glad you love it Vince." Tifa said, smiling brightly towards the young man.

Just then, the same doctor that had conversed with Vince earlier, rushed into the room, hunching over, he gripped the doorframe, panting and breathing heavily. He looked up to the group, and finally regained his breath.

"You 4, come in here, it's Ivy, I think she's waking up." He said.

Faster then you could say holy shit it's Sephiroth, Vince lept out of his bed, landing on the linoleum floor with a very loud thud, he quickly rushed off to the room, Tifa, Cloud, and Vincent right behind him.

When the 4 of them reached the room, several doctors and nurses where in the room, but kept a slight distance from the bed of the girl. Vince and the others stood by the foot of Ivy's bed, Vincent standing behind Cloud and Tifa, who stood next to Vince, who was right next to Ivy's face, looking down at her. Ivy's eye lids started to squirm and flutter a little bit, then slowly opened, her eyes having to focus on everything that surrounded her. When her eyes focused completely, she saw her brother, Tifa, Cloud, Vincent, and many doctors and nurses watching her. Vince was fighting back tears in his eyes. Tifa and Cloud both looked extremely happy that the girl was awake, and Vincent even had a small smile on his usually serious face. Ivy slowly sat up, smiling brightly at Vince, like nothing had even happened.

"Hi Vince. Hi Tifa. Hi Cotton Candy. Hi Spook~~~" She said, all in one breath.

Vince got down on his knees and hugged his sister tightly, thanking every single being that he could possibly thank under his breath. Ivy started to get up, just like Vince had. Vince knew he'd be a hypocrite if he didn't help her up and gently helped his younger sister sit up, then helped her get out of bed, much to the doctor's chagrin. When Ivy was fully standing, she immediately latched onto Vincent, smiling brightly. Vincent, didn't push her off or anything, knowing that'd be rude to the ex-comatose girl. Eventually, Ivy let go of Vincent, but then latched onto Cloud. Cloud smiled down at the girl, ruffling her hair. Finally, the girl was done glomping the two men, she let go and returned to her brother.

"So, what did I miss?" She said, smiling.

Vincent patted Ivy's head, shaking his head gently.

"Hmmm, eh, nothing really. All you really missed was me getting a new gun, no big." Vince said.

"Ah, awesome sauce, can I see it?" Ivy asked, looking up to her older brother.

"Sure, you can't fire it though." Vince said, smirking down at her.

"Awwwwwwwww, why not!" She whined, pouting, then she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Cuz big brother said so." Vince said, the two carrying on like no one else was in the room.

Finally, Vince, Tifa, Ivy, Cloud, and Vincent were about to leave the room, when suddenly, a large explosion went off, the sound seemingly coming from below them. Suddenly, several screams could be heard from within the hospital. Screams and the sounds of wings flapping, wings flapping and claws scratching linoleum. Suddenly, in the doorway, flew in a very large yellow Ahriman. Ivy shrieked, before ducking behind Vince. Just before Vince was going to take the thing on though, Vincent had pulled his gun out and shot the one-eyed monster directly in it's eye, splattering blood all over the floor right outside the hallway. The creature writhing in pain and agony before dieing an excruciatingly painful death of having it's brains basically blown out.

"Fuck me in the ass with a large porcupine, we never get a break do we?" Vince said, sighing.

Vince looked back to the doctors and nurses, who by this point, were pretty much scared shitless.

"Everyone, stay in the room, lock the door and whatever you do, _**do not make any noise**_. Do not open the door unless we give the okay." Vince said, all the doctors and nurses quickly nodding.

Cloud pulled out his fusion sword, Tifa tightened her gloves, and Vincent already had Cerberus drawn.

"Everyone, move out, we have to make sure everyone else in the building is alive and okay. And we damn sure have to find out what's causing this." Cloud said, going to the head of the group of 5 people.

"Ivy…. Will you be okay staying by my side?" Vince asked. He wasn't going to leave her in this room. He was going to keep the closest watch on her that he could.

All Ivy did was nod to her older brother, wrapping her arms around his waist. The 5 of them, then proceeded to leave the room, locking it behind them. Quickly making a stop to Vince's room so he could get his new gun and his off-white jacket. After the young man readied himself, taking the safety off his .45 and pulling his jacket on, fastening the holster to his gun to the jacket, since his hospital pants didn't have belt loops and he didn't have a shirt, they left the room, ready to handle anything that will stand in their way.


	7. The Waves Come Crashing Down

**The Waves Come Crashing Down**

The hospital had quickly been overrun by hundreds of monsters of all shapes and sizes. The monsters roamed the halls, trying to find fresh food, blood stains of their previous victims splattered everywhere, the overheard lights dimming in and out, giving off sparks. Our heroes had split off into groups of two, Vincent being the only one alone. Cloud was with Tifa and Vince was with Ivy. The groups had taken to different sections of the hospital, Vince and Ivy on the top 3 floors including the roof, Vincent had the main lobby and the basement levels, and Cloud and Tifa had the middle section.

As Vince and Ivy patrolled down the lonely, eerie hallways of their first floor, the sounds of growls and wings flapping echoed everywhere mixed with their own footsteps, making Ivy cling to Vince. He gently caressed her hair, trying to calm her, his .45 securely in his hand, finger ready on the trigger, safety off. Vince had hushed his own breathing, relaxing himself so he could try and detect and monsters around them. As they patrolled around, snarling could be heard behind them, followed by the charging sounds of a rushing guard dog. Vince quickly whirled around and pulled the trigger, covering Ivy's eyes. He shot the dog square on in it's forehead, the monster's limp body flying back, it's head completely destroyed, splattering blood everywhere. Dead before it could even make a sound in pain.

"Hmph." Was all the man had to say, turning around and continuing on with their search.

Vincent wasn't having any trouble at all in the basement, the monster's being so weak, he wouldn't even waste transforming into the Galian Beast. Ahriman, Guard Dog, and even a few 8-Eye corpses lay everywhere the man had been. The man pondering about the whole situation while scouting, his tattered blood red cape flowing smoothly all around him.

Cloud and Tifa were having an easy time too. Death Machines broken down and destroyed bodies laid about, their oil spilt everywhere, staining the once clean, white floors a putrid blackish- brown color. Parts and Pieces lay everywhere as the duo finished their rounds on their first floor, moving one floor up, making sure any survivors where taken care of.

On Vince and Ivy's second floor, they encountered much more resistance then the previous floor, many, many Grand Horns stalked the hallways, accompanied by Zemzeletts. The monsters took several bullets to take down, Vince having to aim for the Grand Horns torso, the head was too armored for bullets to take down, the Zemzeletts just having thicker skulls, but not impenetrable. Their blood quickly adding to the blood bath around them. Their search for survivors had failed on this floor, all the staff here had been killed and eaten, blood covering every inch of floor and wall of the dark and depressing hospital. Ivy kept hold of Vince scanning her eyes everywhere, making sure nothing was gonna get them. Vince kept his hand on her head to try and comfort the scared teen.

When they realized their search on this floor had failed, they went up to the roof, to check for anything there. When they reached the roof, they found something, or rather someone, that they didn't expect to be their, standing in the direct center of the roof.

_Rufus Shinra_

The man just stood there, his semi-short orange hair flowing in the open breeze, the tails of his pure white suit flowing behind him as well. He stood there, unarmed, but unconcerned. His hands at his sides, adorned by black, fingerless gloves. A large, almost cocky smirk held on his face, like he was expecting them.

As soon as they saw the man, Vince quickly pointed his gun at the man, ushering Ivy behind him, guarding her. All Rufus did was smirk, not even pointing his shotgun at the duo. He spoke to the two of them, mainly Vince though, his voice smooth and relaxed, not even remotely concerned about the gun being pointed at him.

"Please, no need for such hostility." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"No need! There's every need, you're responsible for all of this!" Vince shouted, his finger ready on the trigger, temptation to pull it, nagging at him.

"I am? Oh, my sincerest apologies, I did not know. If I am the cause of your problems, why don't you end it, you have the means, I don't have my weapon drawn, why don't you end it now? Or, are you to scared to do it?" He said, taunting Vince.

Vince was enraged by the man's biting words, stinging like the deadliest of venoms. He quickly pulled the trigger to prove the man wrong. However, in an instance, after he had pulled the trigger, Rufus had disappeared. Vince and Ivy looked around confused.

"Oh dear, you missed, what shoddy aim." Rufus's voice echoed everywhere around them.

"Where are you, you coward!" Vince yelled, his anger beginning to boil over, his blue eyes darkening.

"Coward? Tsk, tsk, such harsh words, you've hurt my feeling. I am no coward. Why don't you check behind you?" The voice echoed at first; however, the last sentence came from directly behind the duo, almost right in Vince's ears.

Vince quickly spun around, making sure Ivy was still behind him. There he was, standing their, now having brandished his shotgun, but was not aiming it at the two, just holding it at his side. Vince pointed his gun at Rufus again, quickly pulling the trigger twice. Again though, Rufus had vanished before the bullets could make their mark. The sound of laughter could be heard around them again.

"Sorry, not there either. Man, I thought you were a marksmen, I've seen blind people with better aim." He taunted. "Hey, instead of wasting bullets, maybe you should check on your friends? Just a suggestion."

"You bastard! What are going to do to them?" Vince demanded.

"Me? Oh, I'm not going to do a damn thing to your precious friends, it's what this building's going to do." Rufus stated nonchalantly, suddenly appearing in front of the duo.

And just as the words left his lips, the building shook violently. And with that, Rufus let out a loud, maniacal laugh, disappearing again.

"You might wanna hurry, the building will be overrun in just a few minutes." His voice echoed.

"Overrun?" Vince pondered for a second, but pushing the thought aside, taking Ivy and rushing back downstairs, heading towards Cloud and Tifa.

When they reached Cloud and Tifa's last floor, Vince quickly ran around in a haste, looking for them, taking down any monster's that stood in his way. The 4 of them almost literally ran into each other.

"Cloud, Tifa! We have to evacuate now!" He said, his voice almost in a panic.

"We know, we were just going to go find you, what's going on?" Cloud asked, his hand on the hilt of his sword, just in case.

"I saw Rufus on the roof, something's changed about him, it's like he can teleport… Anyway, as important as that is, we'll have to discuss it later, you two take Ivy and get Vincent and get the hell outta here. I'll get the doctors and get them to safety." Vincent said, gently ushering Ivy over to the two of them.

"But Vince… I wanna be with you." Ivy whined, scared to leave her brother's side.

"No Ivy, this is too dangerous, go with Cloud and Tifa, please." Vince said sternly, placing his hand on her head.

Ivy sighed a little bit, hugging Vince tighter, but then she let go of him, slowly moving to Cloud and Tifa, hugging Cloud but still looking over at Vince.

"I'd better see you again." She said, glaring at her older brother, gripping Cloud a little tighter.

Vince laughed a little bit when she glared at him.

"Don't worry, you will, I promise, I'll be right behind you." He said, reassuring her.

"Good, you'd better be, 'cus if you die, mom and dad'll kill you for leaving me alone." She said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Vince you be careful okay, we all better see you again, and not bleeding to death." Tifa said, putting her arm on his shoulder, looking her soft brown eyes into his deep blue ones.

Vince just smiled and nodded at the two of them. And with that, the 3 of them left to head downstairs while Vince headed back upstairs. Cloud, Tifa, and Ivy quickly made it to the main lobby, where the found Vincent.

"Any luck on survivors?" Tifa asked.

"No, they were all killed. You?" Vincent asked, noticing Ivy was with them instead of Vince. "Where's Vince, is he okay?"

"No, they were all dead on our floors too. Oh, yes, he's fine, gone back to the medical staff on one of the higher floors to evacuate them, we have to get out of here though, I think the building's going to collapse." Tifa said.

Vincent simply nodded, walking towards the front door, Tifa, Cloud, and Ivy following behind, the electronic doors slowly opening up for them. As soon as they exited the building, it shook again, even harder this time. The 4 of them turned around, looking at the building. It was strange, there was no earthquake, only the hospital shook. They stood far away from the building, waiting patiently for Vince to come out. Several Edge police officers came by, taping off the surrounding area, making sure no civilians could wander in. Cloud and them were left to their own devices, the police knowing damn well who they were.

Back inside the building, Vince headed up the stairs, not facing any resistance from monsters, finally reaching the floor where they left the medical staff. His breathing was slightly heavy from running up several flights of stairs, but he ignored it. He reached the door where they left them, banging on it several times.

"Open the door, it's me, Vince." He said, banging on the door really hard.

A few seconds later, the lock clicked and the door slowly peeked open, one of the nurses looking through, her face showing sheer terror. When she saw it really was him, she opened the door, letting him in.

"Everyone, we have to get out of here, I think the building is going to collapse." Vince said, causing everyone to panic a little bit.

As soon as he mentioned the building collapsing, it shook extremely violently, almost knocking everyone to the ground. Vince gripped the wall to keep himself balanced.

"Come on, we don't have much time!" He said, helping rush everyone out of the room, leading them on towards the stairs.

When the group of people made it to the first floor, they all rushed out of the building. However, just as Vince was about to leave, he heard a voice, not around him, but inside of his own mind.

"Good job, you got them all out. Congratulations boy." The voice said, Vince immediately recognizing it to be Rufus.

"Rufus! Where are you, show yourself dammit!" Vince demanded.

"I do not need to show myself to such a worm." His voice echoed, suddenly losing all traces of cocky arrogance.

Suddenly, the floor beneath Vince's feet blew out from under him, dragging him into the darkness of the basement. When he landed, he landed directly on his ass, causing him to curse in pain. He slowly stood up, checking his surroundings. The basement seemed different, no longer a real looking basement of a hospital, but more of a ethereal darkness that surrounded the man on all sides, cutting his visibility to damn near zero. Suddenly, a piece of the basement illuminated in front of Vince, Rufus standing at the center of it, holding his shotgun out, aiming at Vince. Vince reacted quickly, aiming his .45 at Rufus, the two of them at a standstill almost. Rufus then just simply started to laugh, his gun lowering.

"What's so funny! Stop your fucking laughing!" Vince demanded.

Rufus continued to laugh, slowly quieting down still he stopped completely, looking Vince dead in his deep blue eyes.

"What's funny _boy_ is you, how you think you can kill me. It's hilarious." Rufus said, beginning to chuckle again.

"Shut up! I can, and I will, kill you!" Vince shouted, his deep blue eyes getting darker in color.

He immediately fired his gun 5 times at Rufus, the slide not returning to position, signaling he needed to change, which he quickly did so. Each bullet however, missed their target completely. Just as he had fired, Rufus disappeared, darkness returning to where he was standing. Light reappeared as did Rufus, to Vince's far left. Rufus laughed once again, his laughing echoing all around them.

"I told you _boy_, you can't kill me, you can't even scratch me." He said. "I hope you have fun boy."

And with note, Rufus disappeared again, leaving Vince alone in pure darkness to ponder what he meant.

"What could tha-" He never got to finish that sentence.

In a split second, an enormous flood of the life stream erupted from the floor, destroying the entire building, but not damaging anything else around it. From outside, everyone was shocked at what occurred. Ivy started screaming and trying to head towards the pillar of the life stream, but what held back by both Vincent and Cloud.

"Vince!" She screamed over and over, tears pouring from her face, scratching at the two men to get them to let go, breaking skin where she could, but they would not let her go.

"No Ivy, it's too dangerous, you'd be killed." The two of them stated, holding her back, ignoring the soft cuts the girl put in their arms.

"I don't care! He's my brother, he promised he'd come back, he promised." She screamed, her voice broken and filled with loud sobbing.

Eventually, she stopped trying to get to the destroyed building, breaking down and crying in Cloud's comforting arms, not saying anything to her, just running his hand through her hair. Tifa looked down at the poor girl, feeling terrible for her. Finally, when the life stream returned into the planet, nothing was left of the hospital building, but a perfect crater, not even rubble was around. Tifa, Cloud, Vincent, and Ivy slowly walked towards the spot, everyone else having left the scene. When they reached the edge of the crater, they looked down into it, all they saw was large pool of the life stream, it's waters shining a bright bluish-green. No signs of Vince though, not even a body. Cloud probably thought it was washed down the life stream, but would not dare voice his thought, Ivy was crying and upset as it was.

After about an hour of just pure silence, except for the quiet sobs of the young girl, the 4 of them left the scene, heading back towards Kalm, not knowing what to do now…


	8. Solitude and Loneliness

**Solitude and Loneliness **

One month had passed since the tragic event at the hospital in Edge. The others had taken the news of Vince's probable death hard, the atmosphere in the entire headquarters becoming dreary and depressing for a solid week. And even after that, Ivy ;however, was in denial, she refused to believe that her only family left was gone forever, repeating that he was going come back, but by the 2nd week since his disappearance she was only saying it to try and convince herself that he wasn't dead.

Cloud walked up the small flight of stairs that led into Ivy's room, carrying a tray of food for the young girl. After the 3rd week, Ivy had all but holed up in her room, only leaving to go to the bathroom and even then, she didn't speak at all. When Cloud reached her room, he gently tapped on the door with his feet.

"It's unlocked…" Ivy said, her voice cracking a tiny bit.

Cloud carefully maneuvered himself to open the door without dropping anything, walking in. Her room was of a fairly simple design, light brownish carpeting, a small table next to her bed, a clothes dresser in the corner, a twin size bed with multiple pillows, and a small place on the wall, parallel to her bed, where her Twin Lilies hung. The blades of her swords were reverse of each other in terms of shape. One curved slightly up while the other had a downward curve. The blades themselves were shining a brilliant sapphire blue, a white pattern similar to a floral design snaked its way down the center of both blades. The handles themselves were a reddish color, small almost magnetic snaps on each end where they could easily be formed into one large blade.

Cloud set the tray of food on the table next to her bed, where she sat, eyes blood shot red, she had obviously been crying not long ago. She turned her whole body, her back to Cloud.

"Not hungry…" She lied.

"Ivy, you haven't eaten anything all day, you need to eat something." Cloud said, really wishing she would eat something.

Ivy then turned around and looked at him, tears welling in the corner of her eyes; she fought her emotions to keep them from falling. She gripped the blankets on her bed tightly; her eyes seemingly changed colors, although Cloud speculated it could be from her crying. Maybe?

"No! I'm fine Cloud; I'm not hungry at all!" She said, raising her voice, for once not calling him her beloved little pet name, which shocked Cloud greatly.

Cloud simply sat on her bed, pulling the angry teen into a close hug, trying to calm her. Ivy struggled at first, tried fighting her way out of the embrace, but the man was too strong for her. Eventually, she stopped trying and just accepted it, her body falling slightly limp in his arm. She started sobbing heavily, Cloud just simply holding the scared girl tightly.

"W-why… He promised… He promised he'd come back." She cried, repeating herself, tears flowing down her face, landing on Cloud's arms.

Cloud wasn't really sure what to say, nothing he could say would take her mind off the fact that she had no real family left, so he simply held her, humming to her. Ivy eventually stopped crying, all her tears had been shed. Cloud released the girl, smiling down to her.

"Are you ready to eat now?" He asked, reaching for the tray of food, placing it on his lap. It was a fairly simple meal, warm chicken soup with a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and a glass of soda.

At first, Ivy eyes the food suspiciously, but Cloud cleared any doubts from her mind.

"Don't worry, Yuffie didn't make it, you would have heard the kitchen explode if you did." Cloud said, causing him to chuckle a little bit.

Ivy laughed at his words, her laugh a great relieve to Cloud, hearing the girl sound happy again.

"If she didn't then who? Was it you?" She asked.

"No, I can't cook either. Cid's the one who made it." He said which made Ivy's green eyes almost sparkle.

"Really!" She said, her voice sounding so enchanted and happy again.

"Yep, sure did, grumbled something along the lines of 'You motherfuckers wouldn't know what to make her if she went and told you.' And he insisted he do it." Cloud said, trying his best to imitate Cid.

Ivy squeed in pure joy, which made Cloud smile. She took the tray from Cloud and set it on her lap and began eating immediately, smiling at how good the food was. She had quickly devoured all of the food, washing it all down with her soda. When she was done, she smiled widely, happy at how good the food was.

"I take it you liked it." Cloud said, smiling.

All Ivy did was nod, a large smile spread across her face. Although, after that, her smile dropped, a more serious expression laid upon her face.

"Cloud, will you train me?" She asked out of nowhere.

Cloud was slightly shocked at her question, but kept cool.

"I'm sorry Ivy, I can't. It'd be too dangerous for you." Cloud said, shaking his head.

"B-but, that's not fair. I helped kill that Behemoth, I deserve to be trained, I can handle it." Ivy said, whining loudly.

"No Ivy, I'm sorry, but no, please don't ask again." Cloud said.

And with that, Cloud got off her bed and left, leaving Ivy to sit and think about everything. Ivy crossed her legs, huffing, thinking what to do. Then, a fiendish and probably stupid idea crossed her mind, causing her to smile devilishly. However, she was Ivy Motherfucking Starr, so of course she was gonna do it.

3 hours later, Cid was heading up to Ivy's room, to tell her that dinner was almost ready. When he reached her room, opening the door, he was greeted with quite a sight, no Ivy, she was gone!

"God dammit! Where the fuck is she!" Cid yelled, causing Cloud, Tifa, and Barret to run up there, wondering what was wrong.

When they showed up, Tifa gasped at seeing Ivy gone. Cid quickly noticed that her Twin Lilies were gone and her window was open.

"Dammit, girl must a left threw the window. But where the fuck would she go?" Cid wondered.

The four of them stepped into the room, looking around for some kind of clue as to where she went. Suddenly, Barret noticed a piece of paper lying on top of her bedside table. He went over and picked it up, reading it aloud.

"_By the time you read this, I'll be long gone. Don't come looking for me guys, I'm going to do a lot of training so I can be strong like my brother and you guys. I'm sorry, but I'm tired of not being able to help. So, this is goodbye for now. Don't worry though, it's not permanent, I will be back. When I do see you all again, I hope I can be as strong as you. I love you all. Bye."_

"Dammit, why she have to do such a foolish thing?" Both Cid and Barret said.

"I don't know, but we have to find her and convince her to come back." Tifa said.

"But where, we don't have any idea where she would've gone?" Cloud mentioned, bringing up a very good point.

The group sighed, even Cid. They had absolutely no idea where to even hope to begin searching. However, something sparked an idea with Cid.

"Hey, why don't we ask around town, someone must have seen her?" He said.

"Yeah, you're right Cid, there's no way that someone didn't see her. Okay, let's ask around town. Everyone, let's mosey!" Cloud said.

"God dammit boy, I told you back at the Northern Crater not to say that shit again, it's so fucking wimpy! Just say, move out, or something better then that!" Cid said, annoyed.

And with that, everyone left to try to find the girl. And I mean everyone, Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith, and everyone else. All went out in Kalm, asking around to see if anyone had seen the green haired girl.

When they all reported back about thirty minutes, Red XIII was the bearer of good news.

"It's seems she has headed west, towards Junon." He spoke, his voice sounded older and wiser then his real age suggested.

"That's good to hear, we can intercept her before she gets there, there's no way she could cross the continent before we can, not with my Sherra." Cid said, smirking.

And with that, the gang headed to the outer edge of Edge, where a large hanger awaited them; within it were two large airships, the Highwind and Sherra, Cid's newer airship. The gang boarded the airship, taking 15 minutes for Yuffie to get on since she still hated airships due to her airsickness. When everyone was onboard, the roof of the hanger opened up, the engine of the large airship starting a dull whir, but quickly increased in loudness, turning into a loud roar as the airship rose from the ground. Once the airship was in the air, Cid gunned the ship full speed to Junon, in search of Iviniya Starr.


	9. The Long Trek Ahead

**The Long Trek Ahead**

As the group sped off towards Junon, little did they know that Ivy wasn't going anywhere in that direction. After she left Kalm, she headed straight north, a small boat waiting for her at the edge of the ocean. She had put the boat there several days ago as a back up if Cloud had refused to train her. She knew that the others would try and go after her so she led them in the wrong direction, she found a man and told them if anyone asked about her, that she went to Junon. The man had agreed and did indeed deliver the message. Ivy traversed the large plains that surrounded her, a gentle breeze blowing, the grass bending downwards, a peaceful sun laid off in the distance. Her green hair was ruffled slightly by the breeze. She kept her Twin Lilies on her back, one blade crossing over the other and she kept a small backpack too, it sitting on top of her blades. When she reached her getaway boat, she gripped it on its sides and pushed, the boat taking a second before finally budging into the water. The boat itself wasn't very big, slightly bigger than a canoe.

Before the boat got to far out for her to hop it, she hoped into the boat, an oar inside of the small boat. She picked the oar up and begin to paddle the boat out into the ocean, heading north.

It took roughly a day, almost two, off nonstop paddling to reach another continent, this continent have large mountains in the backdrop, a large forest in the center of two mountains. And in the center of the forest, a giant skull could be seen. And behind the forest, but unseen to Ivy, was an incredibly large crevice, the walls seemingly cut out, and they were not made of regular rock, the walls shined almost like diamonds. When she had arrived, it was the middle of the night, the stars shining brilliantly above her, the moon in a waxing position, about almost halfway to a full moon.

"Just like in 7." Ivy muttered slightly, exhaustion rearing it's head.

Ivy was so tired from her journey across the ocean; however, she knew she had to continue on, at least make it to Bone Village. She stepped out of her boat, each step towards Bone Village felt like she had 50lb weights tied to her ankles, but she pressed on. Finally, after little to no trouble from monsters, she made it to Bone Village, asking if she could stay the night there, despite not having any Gil, only a few dollars, useless in Gaia. The men working in Bone Village happily let her sleep there, they couldn't turn a blind eye to a young girl who had traveled so far. They brought her to a nearby tent, used as a makeshift inn. Ivy basically fell into the bed, falling asleep immediately.

The next day, at about 3:30pm, Ivy woke up, feeling a lot better then she did the night before. She climbed out of the bed, placing her hand on her torso, right about her chest, grasping the chain of the necklace her brother gave her. Quickly letting go, pushing the pain behind her, Ivy left the tent, heading north through the village, passing various diggers and the like, all working hard. When she about to head into the sleeping forest, a man tried to stop her, telling her that she wouldn't be able to pass though the Sleeping Forest without the Lunar Harp. She pretty much ignored him, heading into the forest anyway.

Upon entering the forest, a straight dirt path lie ahead of her. Many trees stood on each side of the path, the closest ones to it though created an overhang of branches and limbs. Suddenly, a green light seemed to envelop everything around the forest, including Ivy. It seemed as if the forest was scanning the new being that had entered it. Suddenly though, the green light faded much quicker then it had came, the ground shaking, not hard enough to knock Ivy down, just startle her slightly. It was almost as if the forest was _afraid _of what had entered it.

The forest awoke though, which would allow Ivy passage. Ivy shrugged the strange shaking off, walking forward through the forest. As she walked though, she noticed a strange crystal laying on the ground. She walked over it, picking it up. The crystal shown a brilliant emerald green color. Ivy instantly recognized it to be a magic materia. She placed the glowing orb above her arm, the crystal slowing dissolving into it.

When the crystal entered her arm, she felt a small glowing warmth within her. She still did not know what materia she had acquired though. Ivy raised her hand up, palm forward. Suddenly, an enormous fireball shot from the palm of her hand, but it did not burn her in any way. After that, Ivy recognized it to be a fire materia, and judging by the strength of that blast, it was most likely close to mastered or already mastered. An ear to ear smile appeared on the young girl's face.

"_Oh YES!_" She yelled out, happy at her find.

And with that, she continued on through the long forest, not deviating from the path at all, knowing that every other direction but forward led to nothing. After what felt like an hour of walking, the scenery changed drastically, no longer was she in a forest, she seemed to be in a petrified area, everything except a few rocks that looked like coral, were a whitish-grey. Ivy noticed a log that led up from one platform of rock to the next, she walked up it, careful not to fall, despite it being such a short distance.

Ivy continued through the petrified area, crossing over a log, this one though at a much higher distance up from the ground then the last one, so she was even more careful. A couple of minutes later, the area seemed to open up immensely. The canyon that Ivy couldn't see earlier, well, now she was at the very bottom of it, crystalline walls surrounded her, sparkling in whatever sunlight reached them. Standing before Ivy though, was an immense city ruins, a large structure at the very center of it. Ivy looked up at the immense structure that laid before her, the top of it looking like an enormous disk.

Ivy spent the better part of half an hour getting to the city. When she arrived, she was greeted by the site of ruins, almost completely crumbled. She stood at a fork between three paths, one right in front of her, one to her left, and one to her right.

Ivy remembered that in 7, there was a set of beds towards the right path. After several hours of travel, she figured she would need the rest, seeing as the next rest stop wouldn't be for many miles. So, she turned and walked down the path, making sure not to trip and fall. As she walked the right path, she saw many crumbling buildings, hoping that the building with the bed hadn't crumbled since Cloud and the others were there.

Ivy walked along, humming a song in Japanese, when she noticed a building that looked somewhat bad, but no where as decrepit as the others.

"That must be it." She said, smiling.

She walked towards the building, noticing there was no door. She walked inside, noticing the inside was far different from the outside. The inside was carpeted a reddish color, the inner walls looking almost brand new, like someone had been maintaining the structure, but that wasn't possible. Ivy took a few steps to her left, noticing a ladder to the next level. Climbing it, she saw three beds on the second floor. The beds where in pristine condition, clean, white pillows, and white sheets. The beds were all made too. Ivy thought it was really weird, but she shrugged it off, only caring that she had a bed to sleep in.

Lying down, Ivy closed her while looking up at the ceiling, a lot of things on her mind. She still managed to fall asleep though, her dreams not very pleasant, but then again, they almost never where anymore. She dreamed of the day that Vince died, the images showing clearly in her mind. Her body tossed and turned, tears streaming down her face, staining her pillow case.

The next day, Ivy awoke, the whites in her eyes blood shot. She drearily got up from the bed, not bothering to make it, figuring that when would someone else come here. She quickly left the house, careful not to fall off the ladder to get to downstairs. Now that she was back on the path, she continued on the path, knowing that it would lead her to the snowfields that led to Icicle Inn.

She followed the snaking pathway around, and when she reached the end, she noticed a gigantic bone structure. It looked something like a ribcage, but instead of the bones curving inward slightly, the stuck straight out, like little platforms. Ivy begin climbing the structure, going from one bone to the next until she reached the hollowed out top that continued the path. She continued on with her journey, having climbed up through an annoying cavern. When she reached the outside of the cavern, the temperature dropped immediately, having gone from somewhat decent, to holy shit it's cold.

Once she was in the snow fields, there was nothing to be seen for miles except for snow and mountains to her left, right, and back. Ivy didn't bring a jacket with her, regretting it immensely.

Ivy trudged through snow, her feet making crunch like noises as she slowly walked through the snow, rubbing her arms up and down to try and keep some warmth. As she walked, she could hear faint noises from behind her, but ignored it, assuming it was the wind. As she continued on though, the noises got louder and louder, loud snarls being heard now.

Ivy knew it wasn't the wind now, so she stopped dead in her tracks, pulling out both of her swords, attaching them at their hilts, waiting patiently. Not five second later, Ivy was surrounded by a large pack of roughly 15 Bandersnatches. Ivy calmly checked all around her, they had indeed surrounded her, circling her slowly, examining their prey. One of them behind her decided to be bold and jump at her, roaring loudly. Ivy quickly faced her attacker, jumping back slightly. When she jumped back; however, her necklace flew up a little bit. It became caught in the monster's claw and was ripped off her neck, landing in the soft snow.

When Ivy noticed that she necklace had been broken off her neck, she flew off the handle. Her eyes turned the darkest shade of blood red imaginable. She dropped her swords to the ground, tears flowing down her face. Suddenly, she dropped onto all fours, growling like a rapid dog. She lunged towards the Bandersnatch that first attacked her, gripping her hand around the creatures neck, it gasping for air as it jerked around, trying to free itself.

In one swift movement, she destroyed the creature's esophagus, killing it quickly yet painfully, blood staining the snow from the creature's mouth. The other Bandersnatches lunged toward where Ivy was, but before they could get to her, she was gone from that spot, she appeared behind the group, this time, gripping her blade, having separated it. Ivy quickly charged the group of monster's blades poised and ready to kill. She started stabbing each and every Bandersnatch that she could, dodging every pitiful attempt the made to attack her.

Not even two minutes later, all 15 Bandersnatches lay on the ground, dead. Blood from the creatures bodies staining her once clean blue blades, a little bit of blood had splattered onto her face. Blood pooling on the ground, staining the snow all around her. Ivy's eyes changed back to their regular dark green. When she realized what she did, she quickly walked to where her necklace lay, cradling it in her arms as she sat on her knees in the snow, crying.

Several minutes later, when she was done crying, she slowly stood up, gently placing the necklace in her pocket. She flicked her blades in one fast movement, the blood jumping off the blades, landing in the snow. She slowly walked on, following close by the mountains, knowing when they curved, she would be almost there. She ended up following the mountain for roughly half a day. Ivy sighed in relief when she noticed the curving mountain. She followed it around, seeing the small resort town of Icicle Inn straight up ahead.

"Finally, I'm almost there." Ivy said, her breathing hard and heavy.

She followed the snow fields till she got to the small town. When she arrived, she remembered the home of Prof. Gast and Iflana, Aeris's parents. She walked into the home, glad to find it unlocked. She noticed all the old, rusted out computer system, knowing what was already in it's database. She headed past it, down a small flight of stairs to a small room that held two beds. Ivy climbed into one of them, knowing that the next day, she would have to snowboard down the slopes to get to the snowfields that led to the Gaea Cliffs.

Let's see what Cloud and the others did when they arrived at Junon, shall we?

Cloud and the other had reached Junon roughly the same time that Ivy got to Bone Village. When they reached the outskirts of Junon's 'slums' everyone ran into Junon, asking everyone they could if they had seen the girl. To everyone's surprise, no one had heard of or seen the girl in question. They then went into the main part of town, again, asking everyone they could. Yet again, no one had seen or known about the girl.

"Damn it! Where could she be?" Cid said, punching a wall as hard as he could.

"It is quite a conundrum, I wonder if she knew we'd go here and deviated from her path?" Red XIII suggested.

"Yeah, maybe she went somewhere to find materia!" Yuffie said.

"No, she's not you Yuffie." Cloud said, causing Yuffie to pout and cross her arms.

"Hmmm, well, where she we check now? Should we just hop from town to town, hoping we find her?" Tifa asked.

"Well, that seems like the only the option remaining." Cloud said, his arms crossed while he looked down to the ground.

"Well, what are you fuckers waiting for? Let's go! If we keep standing around here talking, we'll never find her." Cid said, immediately storming off towards the Sherra.

Everyone else followed after Cid, leaving Junon and getting in the airship. They then began the town hopping, starting from Junon, the headed South, towards Mideel, unknowingly going in the opposite direction of where Ivy would be.

Back at the Icicle Inn, Ivy awoke the next day, feeling better for once. Ivy left Prof. Gast's house, heading north through the town. She was just about to leave the town when she was stopped by a shorter, balding, pudgy man. It was the mayor of Icicle Inn.

"Young lady, you can't leave that way without a jacket, it's suicide!" He said.

The man then grabbed Ivy's hand, leading her back towards his home, taking her inside. The inside of his cabin was simple. It had a wooden floor, animal pelts hanging from the wall and on the ground. A fire crackled in a fireplace in the corner of the room.

"Stay here, I'll get you what you'll need." The man said, before disappearing into another room.

Ivy stood there, waiting for the man to come back. Soon after, the man returned, a piece of paper and a snowboard in one hand, a jacket in the other.

"Here's a map so you won't get lost, a jacket so you don't die of freezing, and a snowboard to get down the slopes." The mayor said.

Ivy gladly accepted the items, taking her swords and backpack off before slipping the jacket on, slipping the map into her backpack.

"Thank you so much sir." Ivy said, smiling brightly.

"No problem little lady, I couldn't turn a blind eye to a girl as young as you going off into the slopes unprepared." He said.

When Ivy put the jacket on and put her swords and backpack back on her back, she picked the snowboard up, heading towards the door, thanking the mayor once more. Once she left the house, she headed back to where she was going to leave the town. Once outside the town, she laid the snowboard down, getting on, and kicking off, starting to go down the large mountain slope.

Ivy ducked and dodged trees, rocks and other sorts of obstacles as she made her way down the mountain. It was an easy time to get to the bottom, only taking roughly 20 minutes.

Once down the mountain, Ivy checked the map to see where she was. She saw at the bottom of the map, detailed drawing and descriptions of the area where she was and all other areas around the area. She made a mental note of the path she needed to take to get to the cliffs.

Trudging through each area, having to deal with many, many monsters, mainly Bandersnatches, the occasional Ice Golem. None of it gave her any trouble though.

Despite the map she had and her own path made on it, she somehow ended up lost for roughly two hours, having returned to an area she swore she saw already.

"Ah, shit! I'm lost." Ivy screamed, her voice echoing for quite a distance, eventually fading out though.

Ivy checked her map repeatedly, wondering where she could have went wrong. She noticed that instead of heading left like she made on the map, she turned right.

"Err, what a stupid mistake." She mumbled.

Ivy continued on with her journey, having corrected her mistake, she was back on the right path. As the day turned towards the night, she had made it out of the snowfields, seeing an enormous mountain before her. She knew that she had made it, the Gaea Cliffs stood before her. She noticed a small log cabin to her right, maybe she could stay there before continuing on with her journey.


	10. Will and Determination

**Will and Determination**

Ivy had finally made it to the Gaea Cliffs. As she stood before the path leading up the mountain, she let out a small sigh of relief, a cloud of cold air showing as she exhaled. Noticing that the sky had begun to darken, she decided to seek shelter in the cabin to her right. She would venture up the mountain tomorrow, during the day when the weather wasn't so far below zero.

Ivy walked up the wooden steps to the cabin, gripping the railing carefully so she wouldn't slip on the frozen steps. Ivy stood in front of the door and began to carefully knock on the cold, wooden door. At first, Ivy received no response so, she knocked. It took a few seconds, but someone finally came to the door. It was an older man, with graying hair and a slight hunch, possibly due to back problems. He was pretty tanned for someone who lived out at the base of a snowy mountain.

"Yes? May I help you young lady?" The man, know as Mr. Holzoff asked.

"Uh, yes, can I stay here for the night; I don't wanna go up the mountain at night?" Ivy asked.

"Oh of course young lady. Come in, come in, you must be freezing." Mr. Holzoff said stepping to the side and holding the door open for Ivy.

Bowing slightly, Ivy walked inside, feeling immediate relief from the cold. The inside of the cabin was fairly simple, somewhat similar to Icicle Inn's mayor's house, but a bit smaller. Just like the mayor's house, Mr. Holzoff had several large animal furs hanging on the walls and one lying on the floor.

"The bed's right up there ma'am. But before you go, may I ask your name?" He asked.

"Just call me Ivy." She said, walking toward the stairs.

"Ivy eh? Just call me Mr. Holzoff." He said, not knowing that Ivy already knew the man's name.

Not, wanting to freak him out by telling him that she knew already, Ivy nodded, smiling a bit, and walked up the stairs to his guest room. She walked in and sat on the bed, lying down, instantly falling asleep.

The next day, Ivy awoke very early in the morning, even before Mr. Holzoff. She left the cabin as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake the man up. Once she was outside of the cabin, Ivy started on her journey up the mountain. She followed the snow covered path up the mountain.

Once the path had ended and all that was left was a straight climb up, Ivy reached into her backpack and took out a pair of gloves. They were a pretty simple design, just black leather gloves. Once they were on her hands, she began her climb up the mountain, finding her hands around every single hand hold that she could.

Ivy climbed up the mountain for what felt like forever, although it really about 2 and ½ hours. Once she was up pretty far up the mountain, she saw the cave entrance that she was looking for. Once inside, the cave was pretty vast. Icicle's hung precariously from the ceiling. Several small pools of water were inside the cave, platforms of ice dotting around the crystal clear water.

Ivy drew her weapons, readying herself for her training. She attached the hilts of swords together, creating her one large blade.

For two hours straight, Ivy practiced attack patterns and combos for herself. She had worked up a bit of a sweat, despite how cold it was in the cave. Large indents were in the walls of the cave and the floor from where she had hacked and slashed away.

After she practiced basic combos, Ivy moved deeper into the cave, to try and find a live target. After about 15 minutes of just pure wandering, Ivy finally ran into a monster to kill. Well, more like it ran into her. It was a large Stilva. The blood red beast raised one of its front claws and slashed at Ivy. Ivy jumped backwards, just barely dodging the monster's attack. Ivy smirked a little bit, charging the large beast, her sword held at waist length.

Before reaching the beast, she raised the blade above her head, spinning the blade in her hands before bringing one blade straight down, driving the blade straight into the beast's neck. The monster reared its head, screaming out in pain, the walls shaking a little bit, several icicles falling and crashing into the ground. When the beast reared back, Ivy was forced to jump onto the monster's back to avoid losing her blade.

Once on the creature's back, she separated her swords, leaving the bottom half inside the beast's neck, blood oozing from the wound, staining the icy floor. Ivy took the other sword and repeatedly stabbed the monster in its back, her blade becoming coated in its blood.

With each thrust of her blade, the Stilva let out cries of pain. It began to buck widely, trying to get Ivy off of its back. Ivy; however, kept hold by gripping her other blade to keep from falling off. With each buck from the creature, Ivy stabbed it with one blade while at the same time, pushing the other blade farther into the Stilva's neck. The creature kept bucking though, desperate to get the young girl off of it.

Finally, Ivy shoved her sword all the way through the Stilva's neck, the blade not thick enough to sever its head, but that wasn't necessary. The monster's spine was cut through and its windpipe was completely severed, blood pouring from its throat. The monster just dropped straight onto its stomach, having suffocated to death. Ivy pulled out her sword from the monster's throat, shaking the blood off of them. She reattached her blades, looking at her kill.

That night, Ivy was still in the cave, having now killed several creatures, a bunch of bats and a couple of Stilvas. She used the bat's bodies and some matches she kept in her backpack to start a nice bonfire to keep herself warm. She sliced up the Stilva's meat and roasted it over the fire, cooking the meat to tender perfection. While Ivy ate, she sat and thought about everything, wondering how the others, especially Cid, were doing. The fire in front of her crackled a little bit as it burned a warm gentle glow, giving the young girl much needed warmth.

After her dinner, Ivy reached into her backpack, pulling out a blanket. It wasn't very big, but it was large enough to cover her body. That night, Ivy slept pretty peacefully for once, keeping warm by her fire. She would continue her training for probably 3 months or so.

_Three Months Later_

Cloud and the others had checked every single town and pretty much every cave on the planet with no sign of Ivy. Finally though, they checked the Gaea Cliffs, only Cloud, Cid, and Vincent going this time. After having scaled the cliffs, looking everywhere for the girl. When they reached the entrance to the caves; Cid, Cloud, and Vincent all heard strange noises, it sounded like clanging metal. They took that as a sign and ran inside the cave.

When they ran in, the first thing they saw, was Ivy collapsing onto the ground onto her back, her sword clanging loudly, echoing across the entire room. Cid and Cloud quickly ran up to the girl, sitting her up. They noticed the girl's skin felt freezing and her normally pink lips where had turned a slight shade of purple. Her breathing was heavy and fast. She shivered greatly as she lay in Cid and Cloud's arms. She laid there, her eyes closed, having passed out from her rigorous training.

"Damn girl, goin out to a foolish place like this, she could've died. How'd she stay out here so long?" Cid said, genuinely worried about the safety and health of the young teen.

"Come on, we have to get here out of here and back to the ship." Cloud said.

"Boy, you don't think I already know that!" Cid snapped.

Cid then picked Ivy up gently and began walking out of the cave, the other two following behind. Once our of the cave, the three of them scaled back down the cliffs, Cid being extremely careful not to drop Ivy; having had to put her on his back so he could climb down the cliff walls.

Once away from the mountain and back on their airship, they put Ivy in a bed on the ship, covering her with several blankets. Ivy started to cough in her sleep and Cid placed his hand on the girl's forehead.

"She's burning up…" Cid said, sighing.

"We've got to bring here to a doctor, but where? Edge's hospital was destroyed and hasn't been rebuilt yet." Cloud pondered.

"I heard that there's a decent hospital in Wutai. Let's take her there." Vincent said.

Both Cloud and Cid nodded in agreement. And with that, Cid left the room, glad that they found Ivy. He went to the controls and piloted the ship away from Gaea Cliffs, the whir of the engine extremely loud as the ship spurred to life. Once the Sherra was in the air, Cid gunned the ship southwest, heading straight for the small city of Wutai.


	11. The Return

**The Return…**

The Shera soared through the air as fast as Cid could push it without the ship falling apart. The engine roared as it was pushed to its very limits, the blade turning quickly. Vincent and Cloud stayed by Ivy's side. Ivy coughed a lot while she slept, her face having broken out into a severe sweat, although her body was shivering as if she was cold. She would cough and shake violently, but would soon relax, returning to her deep sleep. Cloud and Vincent stood in the small room they had placed her in, watching her carefully. Ivy's sword had been placed in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall. The two men were extremely concerned about the safety of Ivy.

Since the ship was going so fast, it only took about 1 and ½ hours to get to Wutai. Once they arrived, Cid quickly carried Ivy out of the ship and into town, Cloud and Vincent following behind. Cid found a townsperson and asked him where the hospital was. He was told it was near the pagoda, so Cid ran all the way there, carrying Ivy in his arms. Once he reached the large hospital, Cid rushed through the door, running up to the counter.

"This girl is seriously sick, she needs a doctor NOW!" Cid said, almost shouting.

"Hold on just a minute sir, I need y-" The receptionist started to say, but was cut off.

"Hold on, HOLD ON! If I 'hold on' this girl will fuckin die! Don't you understand that! Fuck this; I'm goin to a doctor right now." Cid shouted, startling several receptionists and some nurses.

Cid then took Ivy, ran past the front desk, and ran up several flights of stairs, with Cloud and Vincent trailing behind him. Once up to about the fifth floor, Cid ran through the halls, looking for a doctor. Soon enough, Cid almost ran into a doctor. The man was extremely tall, roughly 6'6", short salt and pepper hair, dark tan, and thin pair of black rimmed glasses.

Cid looked up at the man, his face one of anger, yet almost desperation.

"You a doc. Good, you have to help this girl out. She's very sick!" Cid said, rushing it all out in one short breath.

The doctor remained calm and nodded at Cid's demands.

"Right, come on then, bring her into this room." The doctor said, turning to his side and pointing to a room that was right behind him.

Cid nodded, carrying Ivy into the aforementioned room. The room was just a basic hospital room, clean bed with white sheets and a white pillow, a TV in the upper portion of the wall in front of the bed, one large window in the back of the room, which allowed a lot of warm sunlight to peak its way inside, and a bunch of hospital equipment. Cid walked in quickly, bringing Ivy over to the bed and setting her down in it, pulling the blankets over her, up to her neck. Ivy shivered, her whole body shaking, yet her face was covered in sweat. The doctor walked in behind Cid, Cloud and Vincent joining them soon after. The doctor walked over to the bed, standing on the other side of it, facing Cid and the others.

"Now, tell me what happened so that I can help her." The doctor said, remaining calm and collected as he towered over the group.

"Well, she ran away from our home in Kalm more then 3 months ago. We tried tracking her down with no avail for the entire time. However, we were finally able to locate her in the Gaea Cliffs. I believe that's where she had been the whole time." Vincent said.

When the doctor heard where Ivy was, his eyes widened for a split second before calming down again, regaining his composure.

"3 months… I see, by her symptoms, I'd say she's contracted pneumonia. We'll have to act quickly before it's too late." The doctor said.

The doctor adjusted his glasses and reached onto his belt, pulling out a small black radio. He pushed a button on the radio's side, speaking into it.

"I need 3 nurses up to room 917 stat." He said calmly and clearly.

Not even 4 minutes later, 3 nurses walked into the room, one carrying a clipboard, another carrying more equipment, and the last one carrying equipment that would be attached to the heart monitor. The nurses got to work without even being told, attaching pads to the girls upper torso, starting the heart monitor. The monitor showed the girl's heart was really slow and shallow. This worried the doctor and the nurses.

"It's a good thing you brought her here as soon as you did, she would have died." The doctor said.

"Yeah, good thing you brought your daughter as soon as you did." One of the nurses said, talking to Cid.

"D-daughter! She ain't my fuckin daughter you dimwit!" Cid yelled.

And with that, Cid walked out, not even giving the nurse time to apologize, he needed to go smoke a cigarette outside, he was feeling extremely stressed from everything that happened.

A little while later, Ivy's heart rate got back up to normal, which relieved Vincent and Cloud; however, she still had the shivers and was sweating.

"She's doing much better, but she'll still need to stay here for at least a couple of days to allow her fever to drop." The doctor said.

Vincent and Cloud nodded in unison

"Oh, also, would the two of you and your friend like rooms to stay here?" The doctor asked.

"Yes please, thank you doctor." Cloud answered.

"Well then, Elizabeth will show you where your rooms are." The doctor said.

The third nurse stepped toward the group, she had short black hair, it didn't even reach her shoulders, and she wore the traditional nurse's outfit. She had dazzling sapphire blue eyes that sparkled from the sunlight shining in the room.

"Yes sir, right this way you two." The nurse, Elizabeth, said, walking towards the door.

Cloud and Vincent followed Elizabeth out of the room and down the hallway to the elevator. The three of them rode the elevator down to the fifth floor, where the got off the elevator. Cloud and Vincent followed Elizabeth down the hallway, getting strange looks from the staff and patients, just like at Edge. Eventually, Elizabeth stopped walking and opened a door on the right side of the hallway.

Elizabeth showed the two inside the room. It was a pretty nice room, four queen beds, a large TV, white tile floor, a medium sized window, and two bathrooms. It looked like a hotel room almost, which was strange seeing as they were in a hospital.

"Here's your room you two, have a nice day." Elizabeth said

And with that, the nurse left, heading back upstairs to Ivy's room to help the doctor. Vincent decided to go and get Cid to show him there room, leaving Cloud alone to think about everything. Cloud lied down on one of the beds, looking up at the ceiling. Soon after, he found himself asleep.

In the middle of the night, everything was dark and the only sound to be heard in Ivy's room was the heart monitor. The girl was starting to feel better, he shivering lessened greatly. That night though, Ivy had an unexpected, and more then likely unwanted, visitor. The window in her room suddenly was open, yet no one seemed to be there. Yet, in an instant, Rufus Shinra was standing at the foot of her bed, the light breeze blowing his hair gently. Ivy shivered in her sleep when she felt the breeze go through her blanket. Rufus gently moved a stray strand of green hair off Ivy's face, a light smirk on his face.

"Hmph, you have so much potential, yet you waste it all. Sad really. Not even your pathetic brother was as strong as you could be." He murmured to himself.

Ivy's breathing became heavier for a second, her heart rate going up tremendously. But then, Rufus was gone in a flash. The window closed and everything. Right after that, Ivy's heart rate returned to normal.

The next morning, Vincent decided to head into town for a little while. As the man wandered through town, he heard two women talking to each other. Usually, Vincent wouldn't eavesdrop unless he was gathering information, but this conversation proved to be really important.

"Hey, I was walking down the west coast beach yesterday when I saw a man washed up on the beach!" The first woman said.

"Really! Did you help him?" The second one asked.

"No, I saw he had a gun in his hand, he looked really strange, and he had really white hair and just seemed to stare up at the sky. I wonder if he's still there." The first one said.

"_White hair, a gun… The sounds like Vince, but that's impossible, it's been four months, no way, he could've survived. But I have to check."_ Vincent thought.

Vincent left Wutai and headed to the west coast, following it along the side, the waves gently rolling into the sand, getting his boots slightly wet. As Vincent walked further and further, he noticed something farther down the beach. He ran up to it, and sure enough, it was Vince. He was lying on his back, still wearing his coat and the pants from the hospital in Edge, his gun holster still attached to his coat, his body was soaking wet, the waves crashing over his body. His .45 gripped tightly in his hand. His eyes were open, but he didn't respond to anything around him. He had a blank look in his eyes, the once deep, dark blue color in them now pulsed, his eyes changed from light green to their natural dark blue in a flash.

Vincent gently picked Vince up, but when he did, the man's arm did not stiffen, it fell limply, the gun in his hand the only resemblance of a grip he had. His head bobbed and looked around, although he wasn't really 'looking' at anything, he just seemed to be staring off into space. Vincent sighed, he knew exactly what was wrong with Vincent and the sounds that escaped Vince's lips confirmed it.

"Uh…ah…" Were the only things that the young man said, which he just kept repeating as his head slowly bobbed around.

"Mako poisoning…" Vincent said, sighing.

Vincent knew he had to bring Vince back to Wutai, so he picked Vince up and put him on his back. He carried the man all the way back to Wutai. Once back in Wutai, Vincent walked into the hospital, taking the elevator up to the ninth floor. Vincent carried Vince into Ivy's room, setting him down in a chair near Ivy's bed. The doctor walked in, seeing Vincent and Vince.

"Who is this young man?" The doctor asked.

"This is Vince… Her older brother." Vincent said, pointing to Ivy.

"Ah, I see. Mako Poisoning eh." Not even having to ask what was wrong.

Vincent nodded. Vince continued to just bob his head, not being able to speak. If Ivy was conscious, she be thrilled to see her brother alive, however, it probably would break her heart to see him in this state. Vincent left the room, leaving Vince in there with Ivy and the doctor. He went down to see Cloud and Cid, to tell them of Vince's survival and his condition. They were enthralled to hear that he's alive, but the mood quickly darkened when Vincent told them that he was suffering severe Mako Poisoning, more severe then Cloud's due to Vince having been in there for possibly 4 months, Cloud only having been exposed for little more then a week.

Cloud and Cid left the room, going to see the young man. When they arrived back at Ivy's room, the doctor had left. Their fears were confirmed, the young was indeed alive, but that was a hallow victory with the state he was in. Cloud and Cid looked over at Ivy's resting body, wondering how she would take the news of her brother…


	12. Memories

**Memories**

Rain pounded against the windows of the Wutai Hospital. Lightning cracked across the sky, the booming of thunder following shortly after it. It was the middle of the day, 2 days after Ivy and Vince had been admitted to the hospital, but the sky was dark as if was the middle of the night. Ivy was feeling much better, but the doctors still insisted that she stay there a little bit longer, to recover her strength. When she first woke up, she was ecstatic about seeing her brother alive, but the feeling was quickly replaced with more sorrow as she saw what was wrong with him, she had sat up in bed, sobbing all day, her brother sitting next to her.

However, on the second day she stopped her crying. Ivy was sitting upright in her bed, looking around; the only sounds to be heard were Vince's strange noises, the crack of the thunder, and the rain pounding against the window. Ivy drowned it all out though as she sat and thought about everything.

"Vince… Please get better." She muttered towards him, despite knowing he couldn't hear her.

Vince just bobbed his head around, still making strange noises. His conscious mind was in a place miles away from there. Despite his open eyes, their dark blue continuing to pulse that light green, he couldn't see anything around him.

Cid walked in at that moment to check on the two siblings. Seeing Vince, he shook his head, feeling bad for Ivy. Ivy looked over at Cid, giving him a weak smile to try to show that she was okay, when really she was miserable. Cid knew the smile was fake, but played along.

"I just came to check on you two, how are you holding up Ivy?" He asked gentle concern for the girl in his eyes.

"I'm fine, thanks Cid…" Ivy responded.

"Alright, if you need anything, me, Vincent, and Cloud are on the fifth floor." He said, walking out, closing the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Ivy stared back down at the white sheets on her bed, back to thinking. An extremely large crack of thunder sounded, shaking the whole room slightly, although Ivy was unfazed by it. A bright flash of lightning went by before another boom of thunder. However, now standing in the corner of the room was Rufus. Ivy was shocked to see him, her anger surging a bit.

"Now now, calm down, I'm not here to kill you or anything." He said, chuckling.

With his appearance, it was as if time had stopped all around them except for him, Ivy, and Vince. The rain seemingly stopped, the lightning no longer flashed. Ivy was about to leap up and try to kill him when he brandished his shotgun from seemingly nowhere.

"Ah, ah, ah. What did I say, I'm not here for violence; however, if you attack me, I'll be forced to defend myself." He said, holding his shotgun up.

Ivy calmed down, knowing that he could kill her.

"What do you want, here to gloat or something?" She said, her words laced with venom.

"Gloat? Oh no, no, no. Not to gloat." He said, laughing now.

"Then why are you here?" Ivy asked.

Rufus's shotgun seemed to disappear and he walked over towards Vince and Ivy, standing right next to the former. He grabbed the top of Vince's bobbing head and held his head straight up, Vince not able to do anything about it.

"Don't hurt him!" Ivy almost shrieked, scared that the man would hurt her defenseless brother.

"I'm not here to hurt either of you two, how many times must I say it." Rufus said, looking over at Ivy.

Ivy held her tongue, scared that if she angered Rufus that he'd decide to hurt Vince. Rufus looked down at Vince, the man not able to speak any form of proper word, his blue eyes pulsing.

"What a shame, although he is lucky to even be alive, he was down in the Lifestream for months." Rufus said.

Ivy wanted to yell at the man, to tell him that it was his fault, but she held back.

"He probably won't ever be the same again. I wonder what his last thoughts were when his mind was flooded with the memories of all those people in the life stream?" He asked, his voice laced with light amusement.

"You bastard!" Ivy yelled at him, tears streaming down her face.

"A bastard you say? Would a bastard be kind enough to do this?" He said, walking over to Ivy, placing his palm on her forehead.

With his palm on her forehead, a small blast of invisible energy surged forth.

"W-what are you-" She didn't get to finish her sentence.

Ivy passed out, falling onto her back, having been forced into a deep sleep. Soon after, her eyes shot open, looking all around her. She didn't appear to be in the hospital anymore. She was in a large open plain, devoid of anything except grass. The grass rolled around in the breeze. She could hear the faint sound of waves crashing against rocks, meaning that a cliff was nearby. She noticed that the sky was different; it seemed to be a greenish color instead of its normal blue.

"Where am I?" She asked, although she didn't really expect an answer.

"In someone's subconscious." A voice answered, one that Ivy didn't really recognize.

Ivy looked all around her, shocked that there was someone there besides her. When she looked behind her, she looked down and noticed a little boy who looked roughly 7 years old. He had short brown hair and wore a little white T-shirt and blue jeans. He had a small holster around his belt with what looked to be a toy gun inside it. Ivy thought the child looked familiar but she couldn't place it. The boy seemed to have a blank expression on his face, he neither smiled nor frowned and his eyes were a dull blue.

"Someone's subconscious, who's subconscious are we in?" She asked.

"Not sure, neither I nor he remembers his name." The boy said, looking up towards the sky.

Ivy followed the boy's gaze to the sky. What she saw shocked her, it was Vince. He was gigantic and transparent, like a spirit. He just seemed to be sitting there in the sky, rubbing his temples constantly.

"VINCE!" Ivy shouted to him, hoping that he'd respond.

"It's no use; his true mind is miles away from here." The boy said, not hearing Ivy say his name.

Ivy looked around, the plains they were in had changed, the only remains of a plains was the grass that Ivy and the boy were standing on. There were different areas in every direction, a city to the north, a desert to the south, a small home to the east, and a schoolyard to the west.

"If you want him back, we need to piece his mind back together." The boy said, his voice holding intelligence beyond his appearance.

"H-how do we do that?" She asked.

"Follow me; I have to show you a few things." The boy said.

The boy started walking to the east, heading to the house. Ivy followed behind him quietly. When they crossed into the area, Ivy noticed that the crossroads were no longer behind them; they were in the front yard of a small house in a city, the city Ivy recognized as the city that they lived in. The rain poured down on the two of them, the ground wet and muddy beneath their feet.

"Wait… If this is, then this must be…" Ivy muttered.

"Your house? That is correct in a way. It's a memory of it. Come." The boy said his tone unchanging.

The two walked forward, neither caring about the rain that drenched them. They walked into the house, the rain still being heard beating against the windows in the house. Ivy looked around, it was definitely their house. Their first one that she remembered anyway, their family had moved several times before Ivy and Vince were orphaned. The boy walked upstairs, Ivy following close behind.

When the two reached the upstairs, they walked into a small bedroom that Ivy recognized as Vince's room. The room was just as Ivy remembered it, brown carpet, wood walls, one window in the middle of the north wall, a twin-sized bed in the corner and a TV right in front of the bed. Ivy noticed a little boy sitting in the bed, crying. He looked just like the boy that led him there.

"But Vince never had brown hair, it's white?" Ivy said to herself.

"That's where you're wrong, his hair has been dyed several times, and this is his natural hair color. Now watch the memory." The boy said.

The boy looked towards his window, looking out towards the rain, tears streaming down his small face, dripping onto the Pokemon sheets he had on his bed.

"Mommy and Daddy don't care about me anymore… They only care about the baby…" The little boy sobbed to himself.

Just then, a woman walked into the room, her stomach jutting out. The woman was beautiful. She had extremely long, brown hair that reached down to her waistline. She had a loving radiant that looked like it could melt anyone's heart. She wore maternity clothes that fit over her stomach. Vince looked over to the woman and turned his head a little bit, scoffing slightly, turning away again.

"Go away Mommy… You don't love me anymore and neither does Daddy…" He said, sobbing gently.

The woman didn't listen to her son and just walked further in, carefully sitting down next to him, wrapping her arms around the boy.

"I do to honey, your father and I both love you very much, we're just getting ready for your baby sister, that doesn't mean we don't love you." The woman said, hugging Vince close to her.

Vince's tears started to fall faster, returning his mom's hug. Just then, both Vince and his mother just faded away.

"T-that was mom and Vince." Ivy said.

"That is correct. This is one of his deepest memories, one that he regrets having. Now that it is unlocked, a piece of his true conscious has returned, let us leave." The boy said.

And with that, the two left; however, as soon as they took one step they were back at the crossroad. Only this time, the area with the house seemed blocked by an unknown force. The boy then pointed towards the desert.

"That place is useless, it is a place of memories that do not belong to this mind, destroy it, otherwise his mind will remain muddled and the problem with never come to resolution." He said.

"How?" Ivy asked.

Suddenly, a pistol appeared in her hands, it looked to be an AMT Hardballer .45 ACP. Acting upon instinct, Ivy raised the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet soared the air faster then either could blink. Instead of the bullet going off into the desert, the bullet seemed to hit something that appeared to be glass. The bullet shattered the glass; the area seemed to blink out of existence.

"Very good. Let us continue." The boy said, heading to the west.

Once again, Ivy followed the boy into what appeared to be a schoolyard. The sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky. Ivy and the child walked along, walking around a large courtyard that Ivy remembered clearly. It was the elementary school that Vince and she went to. As the two wandered the courtyard, they noticed a little boy holding a younger girl in his arms.

"The memory is about to start." The boy said, standing perfectly still.

Ivy watched as the memory indeed started. He noticed the little boy had stark white hair. Ivy knew it had to be Vince. That's when it struck her, she remembered this event clearly. She almost wanted to start crying about how painful it was. She held back though, and just let the memory play.

The little girl in Vince's arms, who was Ivy when she was 5 years old, sobbed loudly in her brother's arms.

"V-Vince, he stole my plushy…" Ivy sobbed, hugging her 9-year-old brother tightly.

"Shhh, Ivy, calm down. It's ok, who took it? Big brother will get it back for you." Vince said, running his hand through Ivy's hair.

Ivy told her brother the name of the bully, who was older then Vince by 2 years. This didn't bother him though; he'd get it back for her, no matter what.

"Come on sis; let's go get your plushy back." Vince said, leading Ivy along next to him.

The two walked through the courtyard, there bodies actually walked through the real Ivy as if she was a ghost. When the siblings reached the bully who was laughing with his friends and tossing the plushy around.

"Hey, that doesn't belong to you, give it back!" He shouted.

The bullies turned around to see who had the guts to say that to them. When they saw that it was Vince, they just started laughing hysterically.

"What if I don't? What are you gonna do about little boy." The bully said.

"This." Was all Vince said.

Vince then lunged towards the bully, tackling him down. He started punching the boy in his face, blow after blow, the boy's nose broken now. Eventually, the bully's friends came and literally kicked Vince off him. Vince smiled when he saw the boy's blood nose. Ivy just cheered her big brother one.

Suddenly, the air distorted around the whole area, which shocked the real Ivy and even the boy. The memory before them stopped playing, everyone except Ivy and the boy vanishing.

"What's going on?" Ivy asked.

Suddenly, the ground all around them shook, the air distorting again.

"Shit! We have to leave; this memory is being pushed to his deep subconscious by an invading memory. If we don't leave, we'll be trapped there!" The boy said.

The two of them started running back to where they came, the quakes and distortions getting worse. They finally made it back to the crossroads just in the nick of time; the schoolyard area seemed to vanish. It was replaced by what appeared to be Fort Condor. In a way, Ivy was relieved that she didn't have to finish watching that memory; it was too painful for her. The image of her brother having been severally beaten by the bully's flashed in her mind for a split second before vanishing.

"Do I have to destroy that one too?" Ivy asked.

"Yes, but not now, we will watch the last memory then destroying that should make everything come to a resolution." The boy said, now walking towards the north to the final memory.

Ivy followed the boy into the city, rain pouring on them harder then when they were at her home. The boy led her through a couple of streets until they reached a small alleyway. There Ivy saw Vince and herself when he was 14 and she was 10. This memory was clear to her; it was the 4 days after their parents had died when their house caught on fire. The memory started, Ivy shivering in the rain, hugging Vince tightly.

"Come on, we need to leave Ivy." Vince said, rain dripping off his hair.

"B-but where are we going to go…?" Ivy asked, tears pouring down her face.

"We can go out to the outskirts of town, dad's brother lives there, it won't be much, but it'll be a roof." Vince said, holding much disdain for their uncle.

The real Ivy shivered at that, remembering clearly their time with their uncle. It was terrible. He was an abusive asshole that beat Vince for no reason.

Ivy then hugged her brother tightly, knowing they didn't really have any choice besides remaining homeless and she knew they wouldn't survive like that.

"Come on, I'll carry you there." Vince said, picking Ivy up and positioning her on his back.

And with that, the two left the alley, heading towards the outskirts of town. The sibling then faded as the memory ended.

"All that remains is that invaded memory; it is the only thing barring his mind from reforming." The boy said.

Ivy reached into her pocket and grasped the necklace.

"Let's go." She said.

The two of them headed back into the crossroads. Ivy looked up to see Vince, she noticed he was beginning to solidify, but wasn't finished.

"Now, destroy the alien memory." The boy said.

The pistol reappeared in Ivy's hands. Just like before, when she shot at it, it hit glass and the entire area shattered into the abyss. This time though, when that was done, a small shaking occurred.

"Very good. There's nothing stopping his mind from reforming." He said.

Suddenly, three versions of Vince appeared, all being the ones from the three memories that they watched.

"Now that his mind is clear." Said the youngest Vince.

"We can reform." The 9-year-old Vince said.

"And cast all foreign memories out." The 14-year-old Vince said.

The three Vince's walked towards each other, forming together. The boy that had being with Ivy the whole time then walked towards him. He formed into him as well, Vince looked pretty much complete. The Vince in the sky then slowly descended, shrinking in size. The new Vince walked into the Vince that had descended.

With Vince reformed, Ivy started to cry. She ran up to her brother and tackle-hugged him.

"I'm so glad your back, I missed you so much." Ivy said, sobbing into her brother's chest.

"Shh, its okay Ivy, I'm back now. I won't ever leave you alone again." He said, running his hand through her hair.

Ivy just continued sobbing into her brother's chest. She had missed him so much, she was so happy that he was back.

"There's just one more thing we have to do." Vince said, looking down at Ivy.

"W-what's that?" She asked, drying her tears.

"Wake up Ivy, wake up." He said.

Ivy's eyes shot open, Cloud standing over her. She quickly sat up, looking all around her. She was back in Wutai, was it all a dream? No, it couldn't be.

"Ivy, what happened, you've been in a coma for 2 days now." Cloud said, looking down at Ivy, concern filling his voice.

"It's too long to explain, we'd be here for a month." Was all she said. She then remembered what happened with Vince, that couldn't have been a dream, it was too real.

She looked over towards her brother. He was bobbing his head around anymore, it just lay limp, facing down. Ivy slowly got out of her bed, walking over to Vince's body. She got down on her knees, looking at his face. His eyes were closed and he was smiling. Ivy then punched him in the chest, which caused Vince to grip his chest and start to cough.

"You asshole, quit pretending to be dead, you suck at it." She said, smiling despite the fact that she punched him pretty hard.

"Aw, where's the fun in just waking up?" He said, grabbing Ivy into a hug. "Told you I'd be back, you can't kill me that easily."


End file.
